Fire
by Forever Hopeless
Summary: Tonks and Remus throughout the Order of the Phoenix. Tonks discovers dangerous secrets about Bellatrix Lestrange while Remus tries to keep Sirius under control, even when halfway around the world. Includes chocolote, dragons, pranks, and so much more!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**(A/N: Here it is! The first chapter of my first story. Please comment and review, constructive criticism welcomed. I apologize for any errors! Also, I don't own the characters or the setting. That stuff belongs to J.K. Rowling.)**

July 1, 1995 7:25pm

Although it was July, London was cold and dreary. Nobody was out in the rain except for a young woman in a deserted alleyway. The hood of her cloak covered her eyes, but bits of her pink hair peeked out. She appeared to be waiting for someone, as she was tapping her foot impatiently against the ground.

Indeed, Nymphadora Tonks got bored easily, and waiting for Mad-Eye Moody in the freezing rain was not exactly her idea of fun. He was supposed to have met her here ten minutes ago so he could take her to her first Order meeting. Tonks really wanted to make a good first impression, and showing up late and soaking wet was not exactly the best way to do that.

"Finally," she muttered when the retired auror showed up.

"Constant vigilance," Moody grunted. "I thought there might have been somebody tailing me. Do you remember the address Dumbledore gave you?"

"Of course," Tonks answered. She had met with the headmaster to confirm to rumors that Voldemort was back, and he had told her about the Order of the Phoenix.

"You'll be taking side-along apparition with me tonight, seeing as you've never been to the place before." Moody grabbed her arm and within seconds they were at a deserted street lined with tall, fancy houses. For some reason the place looked vaguely familiar to Tonks.

"Well, come on, lass." Moody rushed her up the front steps of number 12and briefly taught her how to undo the enchantments guarding the door. "Don't make any noise when you go inside, for Merlin's sake." The interior of 12 Grimmauld Place was dark and depressing. Dull gas lamps lit the hallway and old portraits lined the walls.

"Oof," Tonks muttered as she ran into an umbrella stand shaped like a troll's leg. Both Tonks and the umbrella stand fell over, making a great deal of noise. Louder than that, though, was the horrible screeching of the portrait of an old woman.

"Shape shifters and blood traitors! Besmirching the house of my father's!" She screamed. "Out, out, OUT!"

A man with pale skin and jet black hair burst out of the nearest door, also yelling. "Shut up Mum, you horrible old hag! Shut up!" Somehow he managed to close the curtains around the portrait, and then he turned to face Mad-Eye and Tonks, who was still on the floor. Blushing, she got up and righted the umbrella stand.

"Well, well, well… look who it is," the man said. Tonks looked closely at him for the first time. He wasn't hard to recognize; his face was on wanted posters all over England, as well as in several of her childhood memories.

"Sirius Black," she whispered, taking a step back.

"He's innocent," Mad-Eye told her.

Sirius made a sudden movement, but it was only to hug her. "I've missed you," he murmured.

"I've missed you, too," Tonks replied, relaxing in the arms of the cousin she had loved and admired as a child. "I never really believed you did it. Everyone else told me that there were too many witnesses, but I kept on trying to find ways to prove you weren't guilty.

"Come on," he said, leading her down a spiral staircase at the end of the hallway. They emerged in the kitchen, which was just as depressing as the rest of the house. Sirius tossed her a Butterbeer and motioned for her to sit down on one of the stools next to the counter.

A half hour and two Butterbeers later, Tonks had heard all about how Sirius was unjustly sent to Azkaban, from the time the Potters switched secret keepers to the time he escaped by turning into a giant black dog.

"Anyway," Sirius said when he was done with his story, "the meeting's about to start, so you'd better go up to the dining room."

Tonks walked up to the ground floor, remembering where the dining room was from the years spent here when she was younger. "So that's why it looks so familiar," she said to herself as she entered the dining room. People were already starting to arrive; a few she even recognized.

"Wotcher, Bill," she greeted Bill Weasley, who she had been friends with at Hogwarts.

"Tonks! Merlin, I haven't seen you in ages!" Bill exclaimed. "Charlie isn't here; he's in Romania someplace, continuing his study of dragons."

They both sat down at the long dining room table; Dumbledore was beginning the meeting. It was definitely not what Tonks was expecting; it was actually kind of boring. Sure, it was kind of interesting to meet new people and to learn about what Voldemort was up to, but everything was rather long and drawn out, with various speeches on safety, such as Mad-Eye's 'Don't-Put-Your-Wand-in-Your-Back-Pocket' speech, in which he mentioned somebody losing a buttock. She made a mental note to ask him who later.

Once the meeting was over she went around chatting with people she hadn't seen for a long time.

"Here's your schedule for guard duty at the Department of Mysteries," Dumbledore said, handing her a slip of paper, which Tonks put in her back pocket, along with her wand. She could practically feel Moody glaring at her.

"I'm giving you tomorrow off from work so you can get settled. Use the time responsibly. Absolutely _no_ wild parties," her boss, Kingsley Shacklebolt informed her.

"Settled? Wha...?"

"Detention has been very boring without you and Charlie Weasley," Professor McGonagall told her. Tonks blushed, remembering an unfortunate incident involving Charlie, a giant sousaphone, and not very many clothes.

Bill smiled knowingly. "Good memories, huh, Tonks?"

Tonks punched him in the stomach.

**(A/N:**** I'm planning to do a lot more stories, including one involving Tonks's Hogwarts years; this will include whatever happened with Charlie and that giant sousaphone. Please comment and review!)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**(A/N: for those who commented and reviewed, thank you so much!**

July 1, 1995 9:30pm

A witch with shockingly pink hair was exiting the kitchen, not looking where she was going at all. She stumbled over her own feet, but Remus Lupin caught her around the waist.

"Clumsy much?" he asked her, smiling.

"Yeah, quite a bit actually," the witch said. "I'm Nymphadora Tonks, by the way, but I usually just go by Tonks."

"Why? Nymphadora is a beautiful name," Remus told her. She grimaced, vaguely reminding him of a little girl he had known a long time ago, who had also had pink hair...

"You're Sirius's cousin aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah. And you're... Remus Lupin! Bookworm, ex-Hogwarts Professor, werewolf..."

Remus smiled at the way she said 'werewolf' last, as if it didn't really matter.

"Ah, Tonksie! There you are, I've been looking for you!" Sirius interrupted them. Now that they stood side by side, it was easy for Remus to see the resemblance between them; they had the same shaped eyes that sparkled with mischief, and the same smile, as if everything was okay, and they weren't in the middle of a war. They also had the same beauty; the little girl Remus had once known had grown into a very pretty young woman, with quite a nice figure... Struggling to keep his mind out of places it didn't belong, Remus focused on the conversation.

"You're staying, I expect?" Sirius was asking.

Staying? What?" questioned Tonks.

"Moving in! It's so much easier to have everybody all in one place, you know," Sirius replied.

"Sirius is bored, more like it," Remus cut in. "He wants somebody to talk to."

"So that's why Kingsley gave me tomorrow off," Tonks said. "Very well. I'll move in in the morning."

"No!"Sirius whined. "Do it now!"

"Sirius, I'm tired..."

"Please? You can sleep tomorrow!" Sirius pleaded.

"Stop annoying her, Padfoot," Remus ordered.

Sirius gave Tonks his best puppy dog face.

"That doesn't work on me, Sirius," Tonks said. There was a pause. "Oh, Fine. I'll be back in a little while." She turned and walked outside.

"Yes!" Sirius said.

"Yeah, one more person for you to annoy," Remus told him.

"Stop being such a pessimist, Moony."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**(A/N: Again, sorry for any errors. I'm not sure how often I'm going to be able to update this, but I'll try for a chapter every few days. My chapters are really short, I know. )**

July 1, 1995 10:15 pm

At last, Tonks had everything she needed to survive for a few days strapped to her broom. This included her guitar, 16oz bottle of chocolate syrup, and a pillow shaped like a bat. There were other things too, of course, but they were extremely odd things like clothes and a toothbrush that you'd never think anybody would need.

She arrived back at Grimmauld Place at around 10:30.

"Tonksie!" Sirius squealed the moment she entered the house. "You're back!"

"Yeah. Where am I staying?" she asked, a bit startled at her cousin talking in a high pitched voice like a little girl.

"Uh, about that..." Sirius said.

"You don't have a room ready for me, do you?"she sighed.

"Well, we are going to have a lot of people staying here over the next few months, so the plans for rooms are still kind of shaky," Sirius explained. "Oh and there are still a lot of rooms that still need to be cleaned out, as they may or may not have deadly animals or dark artefacts in them."

"Wonderful," muttered Tonks.

"We recently cleaned out a room on the first floor," Remus informed her. "It's the third door on the right."

"Thanks," she told him.

Her room was small, but that didn't really bother Tonks much. The wallpaper was purple, and the carpet was a dark blue. There was a door on the left wall that opened to reveal a small closet, and a door on the right wall that led into a small bathroom. She would probably be sharing it with whoever was in the first room.

Leaving her trunk next to the bed, which was made up neatly, Tonks walked back downstairs only to be ambushed by Sirius.

"I'm bored Tonksie!" he said. "I'm bored, I'm bored, I'm bored!"

"I'm sorry," Tonks replied. "I'm tired. I got up at 5:30 this morning."

"What did you do that for?" he asked.

"So I could go to work," she answered. "Anyway, I came down here to tell you good night, I'm going to bed."

"No! Stay and get drunk with me!" Sirius begged.

"Kingsley told me no wild parties," she said, heading up the stairs.

"Having some shots isn't a wild party! Hey—wait!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**(A/N: I made a reference to something off of Potter Puppet Pals in this chapter. I do not own it, just so you know. )**

July 1, 1995 11:03pm

"Moony," Sirius said, poking Remus in the side. Remus ignored him. "Moony. Moony. Moony!"

"What is it, Sirius?" Remus asked. He was reading a book in the library, which was a hidden room on the fourth floor.

"Go convince Tonks to get drunk with us," Sirius ordered.

"You're expecting me to walk down three flights of stairs just to ask her something she'll say no to?" he asked. "I don't think so, Padfoot."

"Fine. I'll just bother you until you say yes." Sirius pushed Remus against the side of the sofa. "Bother. Bother. Bother." He was copying some ridiculous video he had seen on a muggle computer, and it annoyed Remus to no end.

"Argh! Fine, I'll go talk to her!" He put his book down and stomped down the staircase to the first floor. Hoping that she wasn't already asleep, Remus knocked on Tonks's door. After a moment she opened it. It was obvious that she'd been about to go to bed; she was in a baggy T-shirt and shorts, presumably her pyjamas, and her spiky pink hair was still damp from her shower.

"Wotcher, Remus! Come in." She opened the door a little wider. Remus entered the room, noticing that it was already slightly messy. Tonks sat down on the bed, and motioned for Remus to do the same.

"I'm sorry for Sirius's behaviour this evening," Remus said, sitting. "He gets excited when somebody new moves in."

"Well, that's understandable," Tonks replied. "I'd be bored out of my mind if I was locked up here, too."

"He insisted that I ask you to go have some drinks with him," Remus informed her.

Tonks shook her head. "I'm too tired tonight, but maybe some other time."

"Okay," Remus said. "I'll tell him that." Tonks, he realized, did look very tired; her eyelids were drooping and she seemed to be having a hard time remaining upright. When Remus got up to leave he heard her head fall back against the pillow. He hesitated a moment, then went back to pull the covers over her.

Despite her being such a happy and outgoing person in the daytime, in sleep he thought she looked rather sad. "Strange," he muttered, then left the room.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**(A/N: Please continue to review and comment! Again, sorry for any errors. I'm going to try to make my chapters longer from now on, too.) **

July 2, 1995 9:12am

It was no longer necessary for Tonks to exercise every morning to keep in shape. All she had to do now was run up three flights of stairs to tell Sirius to get his lazy arse out of bed, the slide down the banister for five floors until she reached the basement kitchen.

"I still don't see why I have to get up so bloody early," Sirius grumbled, sipping his coffee.

"You can't just lay about all day," Tonks chided, placing two slightly black pieces of toast in front of him. He didn't really seem to care that she was a horrible cook, as he ate them both in a matter of seconds.

"There's nothing else for me to do," he said, glaring at his empty plate.

"You could learn a musical instrument," Tonks suggested. "I've got a guitar in my room."

Half an hour later, it was becoming quite obvious that music and perseverance weren't Sirius's strong points.

"Tonksie, the strings hurt my fingers!" he wailed. "Look, they're bleeding! BLEEDING!" He held up his fingers, which, although very red, were not bleeding.

Tonks sighed. "Maybe we should try something else."

"Like what?" asked Sirius, recovering quickly.

"Like cleaning out the rooms people are supposed to stay in," she replied.

"But that's boring," Sirius moaned.

"Aren't the Weasleys moving in soon?" she questioned.

"Hmph. Fine, let's go clean out Bellatrix's old room. Molly and Arthur will be staying there." Sirius didn't look very pleased at the thought of more cleaning, but it was true that he'd rather have his cousin help him than have to do it alone. "It's up on the third floor," he informed her.

"Wonderful," she mumbled.

Bellatrix's room was the third door on the left. Neither of them were too keen to see what was inside it, so Sirius stalled by talking.

"Molly said she wanted to be right next to the twins, who will be staying in Narcissa's old room, you know, to keep an eye on them. Remus took Andromeda's old room first, though; it was the one with the least number of dark objects. How is your mum, anyway?"

"She... she went kind of loopy after you went to Azkaban. You know, doing drugs, hating herself and me just because we were related to such a horrible family..." Tonks said softly.

Sirius's expression darkened. "It runs in the family, doesn't it?"

"What, insanity?"

"Bad parenting skills. That's why I'm never having kids," Sirius told her. Somehow, if you were a Black, you were just a bad person. Even the good people. He wanted to ask Tonks more about her childhood, but she looked rather uncomfortable. "Ready?" He pointed to the door. Tonks nodded.

Gingerly, as if the doorknob might bite him, Sirius flung open the door, then stepped back. "Ladies first."

The inside of Bellatrix's room was scary. Knives of all sorts hung on the walls, and there was an odd contraption in the centre of the room that might have been some sort of torture device. Black curtains hung on the windows, making it hard to see.

"First, let's get rid of those." Tonks aimed her wand at the curtains. They disappeared. "Sweet Merlin." In the light coming through the grimy windows she could see red splotches all over the room; on the carpet, the walls, even the ceiling.

"What did she do in here, kill people?" Sirius asked, and then noticed the fifty or so human eyeballs attached to the headboard of the bed. He vanished the whole thing. "Nobody would sleep on that. We'll have to order a new one."

"Hey Sirius?" Tonks called from across the room. "These knives won't come off the walls."

"Well, not by magic, maybe." He bravely grabbed a knife, which came off the wall very easily. In fact, it flew off the wall and started attacking him.

"Hey! Get off me!"

Luckily, Tonks managed to catch the knife before it did any real damage. She had to keep a firm grip on it, as it was trying very hard to escape. "What do you want me to do with it?"

Sirius didn't answer, he just picked up Bellatrix's copy of '1,000 Torturing Methods for the Modern Witch', and started smashing the book against the knife. This seemed to make it angry, and it just tried harder to free itself.

"Stop that, would you?" Tonks snapped. "_Evanesco._" The knife disappeared.

"Does this mean we have to risk our lives getting down each of these knives before we vanish them?" Sirius asked, looking nervous.

"You're not scared, are you?" Tonks teased. "I thought you were a Gryffindor?"

Over the next few hours they did this to all the knives. When they were done there was considerably more blood on the floor, although there was none on the ceiling.

"Lunch?" Sirius asked, wiping a bloody hand across his sweaty forehead.

"Sure," Tonks replied.

"You're going to cook, I assume," Sirius said when they reached the kitchen.

"Only if you want your house burned down," she told him.

"Well, I can't cook either," Sirius informed her. "That leaves us one option."

"Starve?"

"No. Eat ice cream until we explode." He got out some whipped cream, sprinkles, cherries, etc. And put them into a bowl.

"Aren't you missing something?" Tonks asked him. "Like, I don't know—actual ice cream?"

"Oh yeah," Sirius said, as if this though had just occurred to him. He got a carton of ice cream out of the ice box and set it on the table. "Dig in."

Tonks was about halfway finished eating when something cold and wet hit her on the ear. She turned to look at Sirius, who was grinning broadly. She responded to his mirth by flicking a cherry at him; he grabbed a bottle of chocolate syrup and tried to pour it over her head. Tonks picked up the can of whipped cream and the fight was on.

Ten minutes later, Remus walked in the room, looking extremely tired. Tonks and Sirius froze. Remus didn't seem to notice them at first, but then his tired expression turned into one of shock. "_What_ is going on in here?"

"Um," Tonks said. Remus looked rather attractive with his clothes rumpled and his hair messed up. Realizing how immature she must look to him right now, she set the can of whipped cream on the counter and took a step away from it. "Nothing."

"Really." Despite the kitchen being an absolute wreak, Remus sounded pretty calm. Perhaps this sort of thing happened a lot around here. "Go take a shower, both of you."

"Whatever you say, _mother,_" Sirius replied.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**(A/N: Please continue to comment and review! After this story is done, I'm going to write another about Tonks and Remus in HBP called Nothing but Ashes, then another about DH called Rekindled. I hope you like them!)**

July 2, 1995 1:27pm

The kitchen was clean, and what was left of the food had been put away. Remus was fast asleep on the sofa in the sitting room. He was so tired from doing Order work that he wasn't even dreaming. There was something, though, that kept disturbing the peaceful oblivion of his mind.

"I think he might be dead," said somebody in a loud whisper. Remus opened his eyes to see Sirius, who was about to poke him again, and Tonks, who was standing beside him.

"Sweet Merlin!" he yelped, sitting up straight. Now that all the ice cream toppings had been washed away it was easy to see the deep cuts standing out on their pale skin.

"Bellatrix had enchanted knives in her room," said Tonks, who seemed unconcerned. "Anyway-"

"Both of you go put some Essence of Dittany on those right now," he ordered.

"We did already. Stop freaking out, Moony," Sirius told him.

"We'll be fine," Tonks said.

"How do you know? Those cuts are really deep. They could get infected or-"

"Because I have healer training, that's how I know," Tonks replied. "It's required to be an auror."

"What? You're an auror?" he asked.

"Yeah, she is," Sirius said. "And she can take care of herself. So can I, for that matter, so stop acting like an over concerned parent."

Remus looked a little surprised at this information. "Oh. Well then, leave me alone, Im trying to take a nap."

"A _nap_?" Sirius repeated, appalled at his friend's words. "What are you, an old man?"

"In case you haven't noticed, Padfoot, yes, I _am_ an old man," Remus replied, putting one of the sofa cushions over his head.

"Oh, you're not that old," Tonks said. "You're like, what, thirty-five?"

"That's old," he argued, his voice muffled by the cushion.

"All the marauder seems to have gone out of you, Moony," Sirius said seriously. He looked like he had just learned his friend was the victim of some life threatening disease.

"We're not children anymore, Padfoot. We're in the middle of a war."

"I'll be upstairs in Bella's room," Sirius said in a cold voice, "being all boring and adult-like, with no sense of humour. Just like you, Moony." He left, slamming the door behind him.

There was a long silence.

"I don't think he's really mad at you," Tonks said at last. " I think he's just grumpy fromm being shut up in this house so long."

"He's right about me being old, though," Remus said sadly, finally removing the cushion from his face.

"You're not old," Tonks argued.

"I'm going back to sleep now, Nymphadora." He laid his head down and closed his eyes.

"Don't call me that," Tonks said. Remus didn't reply. She got up and put a blanket over him, then followed Sirius upstairs.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**(A/N: Again, sorry for any errors! Please continue to comment and review!)**

July 2, 1995 1:39 pm

"Sirius."

"What?"

"What's behind this curtain?" She was pointing at the curtain behind Bellatrix's bed. At first glance it appeared to be another wall, but when you looked closely you could tell that it was made of fabric.

"I don't know," Sirius said, tugging on it. It fell to the floor, revealing a metal cage.

"Bloody hell," Tonks whispered. The creature inside the cage was starting to stir; it rose up, crunching human bones beneath its massive feet. "Why does Bella have a dragon in her room?"

"More importantly, what the fudge are we going to do with it?" yelled Sirius.

"What the 'fudge'?" Tonks repeated. "You totally just ruined the dramatic moment we had going on there."

There was silence for a moment, and then they both started to laugh. The dragon seemed to want to know what was so funny; it snorted flame out of its nostrils, almost catching the carpet on fire.

"Do you think it's tame?" Sirius asked uncertainly. He looked like he thought having a dragon as a pet would liven up his boring life quite a bit.

"I doubt it," Tonks replied. "And even if it was at one time, it's sure to be in a bad mood now; who knows when its last meal was."

"We could feed it," Sirius said excitedly. "Kreacher would make a great meal.

"Kreacher?" Tonks asked.

"My mum's old house elf. He's completely loony," Sirius explained.

"I don't really think feeding the dragon a house elf is a good idea. Don't you have anything else?" Tonks asked.

Sirius's reply was cut off by the dragon as it let out a huge roar. It grabbed the bars of the cage with its jaws and they splintered like matchsticks. Sirius let out a high pitched scream, sounding a lot like his mother.

"Run!" yelled Tonks.

"Go to the pantry," Sirius ordered as they rushed down the stairs, the dragon following. "There's a bunch of dead animals in there for Buckbeak."

"Who's Buckbeak?" asked Tonks, who, instead of running down the stairs like her cousin, was simply sliding down the banister.

"I'll explain later. How is the dragon going to fit through the pantry door?" Sirius asked.

"_Defodio!_" Tonks shouted, as the door came into sight. It exploded, making a big enough gap for the dragon to fit through. Luckily, it was fairly small, only about five metres tall when it stood on its hind legs.

"Bellatrix probably had some kind of charm on the cage that wore out," Tonks said, jumping off the banister.

Sirius nodded, gasping for breath. Horrible munching noises were coming from the pantry as the dragon devoured its contents. It emerged a few minutes later.

"Hey boy," Sirius said, approaching it. The dragon backed away.

"Look," Tonks said, pointing to the long scars covering the dragons back. "I think Bellatrix might have been a little abusive to it."

"Maybe we should put it back in its cage," Sirius said nervously. "You know, before it tries to eat us."

"I'm sure Molly and Arthur would be absolutely fine with a dragon in their room," Tonks replied sarcastically. "That cage is too small for it anyway."

"We could keep it in the hidden room across from Regulus's old room," Sirius suggested. "The door is only visible for those who know its contents."

"What is going on down here?" Remus's voice floated down the stairs. "Why can't you two just behave yourselves?" He appeared a second later, his expression turning from tiredness to shock for the second time that day. "What on Earth happened to the kitchen? I just cleaned it a little while ago. And please tell me that is _not_ a dragon."

"This is Cuddles," Sirius said, patting the dragon on the head. "He is replacing you as my new best friend because you are too boring."

Remus just stood there with his mouth open.

"Anyway, Moony, we're taking Cuddles up to his new home on the fourth floor. Have fun cleaning the kitchen." Sirius left the room, Cuddles following.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**(A/N: There are some bands stated in this chapter; please note that I do not own any of the music mentioned, and also that most of these songs weren't out yet at the time this story took place. )**

July 2, 1995 2:06pm

"I'll help you fix the kitchen if you like," Tonks said. She looked quite guilty.

"That would be nice," Remus replied. He waved his wand at the broken pieces of stone wall and the flew back together. The door next to the pantry opened slowly, and a dirty house elf walked into the kitchen.

"Shapeshifters!" he muttered to himself. "Ruining my mistress's beautiful kitchen. How Kreacher wishes they would leave..."

"That's Kreacher, Sirius's house elf," Remus explained. "Try giving him an order, he should listen to you."

"Kreacher, go away," Tonks said. The house elf went nowhere. "We'll just have to work around him, I guess." She tried to straighten the jars on the shelves that the force of her previous spell had knocked down, but she just ended up causing more damage. "I'm hopeless," she said, hanging her head in shame.

"That's alright," Remus said, fixing the jars. The next half hour was spent cleaning the kitchen. Actually, Remus did most of the cleaning and Tonks entertained him by telling him about the time Charlie Weasley had dared her to stand on her head and play guitar on the Slytherin table during the Halloween feast. He seemed to find the fact that Professor Sprout had to go over and tell her that the entire Great Hall could see her knickers hilarious.

"Tonks, what are you doing to poor Moony?" asked Sirius, who was coming down the stairs.

Remus was shaking with laughter, tears streaming down his face.

"Impossible," Sirius said. "Moony doesn't have a sense of humour. He must be under the Imperious Curse." He punched Remus in the stomach. Remus stopped laughing and glared at his friend. "All better. Anyway, Cuddles is nice and happy in his new home, but what we're going to feed Buckbeak later, I have no idea.

"You never told me who Buckbeak is," Tonks reminded him.

"He's Hagrid's old hippogriff," explained Sirius. "He was supposed to be executed a couple of years ago, but I saved him."

"He saved you, more like it," Remus said.

Sirius shrugged. "I'm going to go send a Patronus to Kingsley; he'll probably be able to get some dead animals for Cuddles and Buckbeak. He hunts, you know."

"He cooks too," Tonks said. "Maybe you should get him to give you cooking lessons so you don't have to annoy us all the time."

"Maybe," said Sirius. "But I'll probably just end up catching the place on fire." He left the room.

"I guess we should continue cleaning up Bellatrix's room," Tonks said.

Remus agreed; it wasn't like he was going to be able to nap with her and Sirius making so much noise, anyway.

"Sweet Merlin," he said when he got his first look of the room. The bloodstains on the walls didn't come off with magic, even though the two of them used a variety of spells.

"I guess covering it up is the only option," Remus said finally. "There's some paint downstairs."

They walked down and retrieved two cans of cream coloured paint, rather than summoning them, for fear they would spill. After vanishing the cage and the filthy carpet they both conjured brushes and started to paint.

"Music?" Tonks asked after a few minutes of silence.

"What? Sure, I guess. Do you have a record player?"

Tonks laughed, and tapped her wand against her hand. A small cube flew into the room. It was filled with a swirly silvery substance. "This is my music player. Bill, one of my roommates, and I invented it and called it The Cube. It's kind of like a Pensieve, but only for music. Here, watch." She tapped the strange object with her finger—it appeared to be sensitive to heat—and a horrible noise came out of it.

"What is _that_?" Remus asked, covering his ears. It sounded like somebody choking to death while playing the electric guitar.

"Marilyn Manson," Tonks replied. "Here, you play something." She tossed him the music player.

The Cube was slightly squishy in Remus's hand. When he tapped it a list of songs by people he's never heard of appeared on the surface.

"Don't you have any old songs?" Remus asked. "Or at least something that doesn't make me want to jump off a bridge?"

Tonks took back the music player and scrolled through the songs. She tapped it a final time and a relaxing song came on.

"That's better," Remus said. "Who is it?"

"Evanescence," Tonks replied. "Shouldn't we get back to painting now?"

Remus nodded. He continued painting the wall he had started. A few minutes later he turned around to see how Tonks was doing.

"Nymphadora..." he sighed.

"Don't call me that," Tonks said, scowling. She had paint all over her hands and some on her nose. The wall behind her read 'Tonks is Awesome!'

"What am I going to do with you?" he asked.

Tonks just grinned at him cheekily.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**(A/N: Sorry for any errors! Please comment and review, as well. And just so you know, I **_**love**_** drinking chocolate syrup.)**

July 2, 1995 3:02pm

"Paint going in one direction," Remus instructed her. "It looks neater." He smiled to show that he wasn't annoyed with her, and then turned back to his wall.

"You should smile more often," said Tonks from across the room. "It makes you look younger."

Remus chuckled. "Get back to work, Nymphadora."

"Don't call me that," snapped Tonks.

There was silence for a while except for the music and the sound of brushes.

"Hey Remus?" said Tonks after a long time.

"Yes, Nymphadora?" Remus asked. He could practically feel her glaring at him.

"Don't call me that! Anyway, this is boring. I want to do something fun!"

Remus turned around. "Wow. You work fast." Tonks's two walls were covered with two coats of paint; none of the blood stains were showing through. What surprised him the most, however, was the fact that they were actually neat.

Tonks nodded. "I'm bored."

"Well, then you can paint the last wall while I paint the ceiling," he told her. He summoned a chair to stand on, ignoring the fact that Tonks was glaring at him again.

Remus was just about to start putting the second coat of paint on the ceiling when something wet hit him on the back of the neck. He placed his hand on the spot where he felt it; when he took it away it was covered with cream paint. He turned to look at Tonks, who was innocently drinking chocolate syrup from a 16oz bottle, while sitting all the way across the room from her can of paint. Wait a minute—she was _drinking_ chocolate syrup?

"Remus, there's paint about to drip on your head," Tonks said helpfully.

Remus, however, was still focusing on the chocolate syrup, and didn't move away in time. "Nymphadora, why are you drinking that?" he asked, ignoring the paint.

"Because it's yummy. And don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks replied.

"You're going to make yourself sick," Remus warned her, as more paint dripped on his head.

There was a loud crack and Sirius appeared in the room. "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY! THE DRAGON—wow, Moony, you got old fast, white hair already, huh?—THE DRAGON CAUGHT THE HOUSE ON FIRE!" He grabbed both Tonks and Remus and apparated to the fourth floor, where smoke was billowing from a door Tonks had never noticed before.

"_Agumenti_!" the three of them shouted.

After a while they managed to put the fire out, and Tonks resumed drinking her chocolate syrup.

"Padfoot, why did you not think to put a fireproofing charm on this room earlier?" Remus asked, inspecting the blackened walls. "The library had better be okay."

"There's a library in this place?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah. It's in one of the three hidden rooms," Sirius replied. "This is another one, obviously, but nobody knows what's in the last one."

"Where's Buckbeak staying?" she questioned.

"Up in my mum's old room. Would you like to meet him?" Sirius said, then, without waiting for an answer, he grabbed her wrist and led her out into the hallway. There was another door, now that Tonks knew about the library. Sirius waved his wand and a wooden staircase descended from the ceiling.

"I'll go first, then call you when you can follow," Sirius told her. "You know how to greet a hippogriff, right?"

Tonks nodded. Hagrid and Charlie had talked her into meeting Copper the hippogriff in her fourth year.

Sirius climbed the stairs and talked in a soft voice to Buckbeak for a while. "Okay, you can come up now!" he said finally.

Tonks climbed the stairs into Sirius's mum's old bedroom. There were rather nice stained glass windows on the walls and huge, fancy bed in the centre of the room. A large golden hippogriff sat on the floor next to the bed. She bowed to him, making sure not to break eye contact. Buckbeak bowed back immediately; he seemed to like her.

"Hello," Tonks said, stepping forward to stroke the top of its head. "You're very handsome, aren't you? With your beautiful golden feathers and powerful wings..."

The next fifteen minutes were spent complimenting the hippogriff, until Sirius decided he was hungry and Tonks decided she needed to get back to cleaning.

She went around the house looking for Remus, her cleaning buddy. First she tried the dragon's room. Cuddles (she was going to have to talk to Sirius about that name) was fast asleep in the corner, still looking guilty, and the walls were glowing red with a fireproofing charm.

Next, she tried the library. The library was huge, with rows and rows of bookcases and a few chairs and a sofa arranged around the fireplace, but Remus wasn't there.

Last, she looked in Bellatrix's room. While she'd been in the attic with Buckbeak Remus had apparently finished up in there; the ceiling was painted and pale blue curtains hung over the clean windows. The room looked sort of cheerful, actually.

Deciding to have a snack with Sirius since she couldn't find her other friend, she slid down the banister to the basement kitchen, where she found Sirius slumped over on the counter, his face in what was left of the ice cream. Tonks wrote 'old man napping' over his head with her wand, then tiptoed back upstairs to the sitting room, where at last she found Remus, sprawled out on the sofa. She crept up behind him, surprisingly not tripping over anything, and peered over his shoulder. He was drawing a picture of his foot.

"Wotcher," she said, and then giggled when he jumped.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" he asked her, closing his notebook and moving over so that she could sit down.

"Maybe," Tonks replied, sitting next to him. "Can I see your drawings?"

"Oh, they're nothing, really..." he said, pushing the notebook out of sight.

"Please?" she begged, giving him her best puppy dog face. This had a very pleasing effect on Remus, who started to stutter.

"I—well, um... sure, I guess." He handed her the notebook, blushing.

Tonks opened it carefully. The first picture was of James Potter, dated January 15, 1975. "Wow," she whispered. "This is really, really good." She studies the immense amount of detail in the picture; every strand of hair, every wrinkle in his shirt, was perfect.

"It's lopsided," Remus said.

"What? No, it's not," Tonks argued, turning the page. The next was of Lily, then baby Harry, then Sirius. After Sirius's picture a page had been torn out, presumably where Pettigrew had once been.

Over the next few hours they continued looking at the dozens of drawings, talking about them, laughing. One of Tonks's favourites was of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, sitting at a table in Remus's old classroom. They appeared to be arguing about something.

"Really, Remus, is this what you did when you were supposed to be grading papers? And who's Hermione? I've met the other two, but not her."

"She's smart," Remus replied. Absolutely brilliant. She'll be staying here soon."

Another one she liked was of a little girl playing piano. She was laughing at some long forgotten joke, her smile frozen in time.

"That's you," Remus told her. "You were about six when I did this. You kept complaining about having to sit still so long."

"Wow. Do you have any pictures with colour?" she asked.

"Yes. My favourite, actually, is also of you." Remus waved his wand and a small oil painting zoomed into the room. It was of a little girl with purple hair—Tonks—who was holing a jar of fireflies. The sun was setting in the background, the sky streaked with pink. All the colours were beautiful together—the pinks, purples, oranges, yellows—it was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous thing Tonks had ever seen.

"Wow. Remus, this is amazing!" she exclaimed.

Remus chuckled, pressing the picture into her hands. "I'd like you to keep it."

"What? No, I can't take—"

"I insist." he said.

"I'll take good care of it," she promised. It was only then Tonks realized how close she was sitting to Remus—she was practically in his lap, but he either didn't notice or didn't care. Deciding she rather liked it, she snuggled closer, resting her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her waist, and they just sat like that for a few minutes, until a knock on the door interrupted the peaceful silence.

"I suppose I'd better go get that, Remus sighed, as Mrs. Black started screaming.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**(A/N: Sorry for any errors! Please continue to comment and review!)**

July 2, 1995 7:39pm

"Kingsley, could you please try not to wake up Sirius's mum next time?" Remus asked, letting the auror inside.

"Sorry mate. I couldn't open the door, my hands were full," Kinsley replied, setting his two very heavy looking bags down, then helping Remus close the curtains around Mrs. Black. "Anyway, I got some food for you guys, since none of you can cook. I also got some stuff for Buckbeak and Sirius's 'new best friend', whoever that is."

"We'll let him explain that to you," Tonks said, appearing in the doorway of the sitting room. "He's down in the kitchen."

The three of them went down to the kitchen, where they discovered Sirius still fast asleep in his bowl of ice cream. Remus chuckled at the writing over his head.

"Old man napping, huh?" Kinsley said in his slow, deep voice, while setting his bags down on the counter. The noise woke Sirius up.

"Wha...? Oh, it's you. Did you bring food?" Sirius mumbled sleepily.

"As a matter of fact, I did," Kingsley replied. He started unloading the first bag; there must have been an undetectable extension charm on it, because inside there was enough food to feed an army.

"Biscuits!" Sirius squealed, grabbing a box and shoving the first five biscuits in his mouth at once.

"After dinner," Remus said, taking the box away.

"Moony, stop acting like my mother," Sirius whined.

"What about some soup?" Kingsley asked.

"Yuck, soup," Sirius said.

"Soup will be fine," Remus told Kingsley.

Two hours later, Remus was still trying to convince Sirius to eat something other than ice cream and biscuits. He had succeeded in getting his friend to eat the meat in the soup, but the vegetables were a different matter all together.

"But I don't like vegetables, Moony," He whined.

"Stop acting like a five-year-old and eat, Sirius," Remus ordered.

Sirius hesitantly took a bite and then grimaced. "Moony, they're nasty!"

"Fine, then, die because you don't eat any healthy food," Remus said. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed." He turned and went up the stairs, although he could hear his friend calling after him. What was wrong with Sirius? Ever since he'd come back from Azkaban he'd been acting like a child; not doing anything for himself, always complaining... perhaps prison had altered his mind? Or maybe it was just so horrible that he felt the need to be mothered? Was Remus being too harsh with him?

Remus had reached his bedroom. It had been a long day, and he was tremendously tired. He collapsed into his bed, too exhausted to even undress. He pushed all thoughts of Sirius out of his head and tried to go to sleep.

There was something aside from Sirius however, that was bothering him. Tonks. When she had been asking to see his pictures he had noticed her eyes; they were the precise shade of Honeydukes best dark chocolate. Thinking about this made his heart beat a little faster; she was so pretty, so funny, and an auror, too...

"Stop it," he mumbled to himself. He would not allow himself to think of Sirius's baby cousin like this; it was inappropriate. She was thirteen years younger than him, for Merlin's sake. Plus, he was dirt poor and also a werewolf. Woman were off limits to him, whether they cared about his condition or not. With this thought, he drifted off to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**(A/N: For those of you who don't know, I accidentally deleted this story while trying to edit it. In my defence, I was half asleep. I'm sorry if this caused you any inconvenience. )**

July 2, 1995 9:44pm

"Could you two please stop babbling and start helping me put the groceries away?" Kingsley asked.

"Nope," Sirius said. "The pantry is full of blood and guts from the dead animals that were there earlier this afternoon."

"Wonderful," Kingsley muttered. "Would you at least help me clean it?"

After forty-five minutes and much grumbling from Sirius, the pantry was clean and stocked with food. The results of Kinsley's hunting, which he pulled from another bag, were stored in the closet of the hidden room that Cuddles was staying in.

"Pet?" Kingsley exclaimed. "This isn't a pet, this is a wild animal! He could attack you at any time!"

"Aw, Cuddles is nice," Sirius cooed at the dragon, which looked like he was enjoying the attention. "He's shy, but he's well behaved. He only set the house on fire once."

"Whatever. I'm going home, where there is no chance of me being burned up or eaten in the middle of the night. Don't stay up too late, Tonks. You have work tomorrow," the auror said, then quickly walked out the door.

"You don't think Cuddles is dangerous, do you, Tonksie?" Sirius asked.

"Well, he is technically a wild animal, and he did set the house on fire," Tonks replied. "But Charlie could take him to Romania, and he could live with other dragons."

"But I want him here, with me," Sirius pleaded.

"He's a dragon, Sirius. He's not meant to stay inside, and having to find food for both him and Buckbeak will be a pain in the arse to Kinsley," Tonks told him. "I'm going to bed now."

"But you said you'd drink with me!" he whined.

"Not when I have to work the next day!" she said, exasperated. Sometimes her cousin could be really daft. She left the room and slid down the banister of three flights of stairs until she reached her bedroom. It had been a long day and she was exhausted, but she forced herself to take a shower, knowing that she wouldn't have time in the morning.

While tugging on a baggy T-shirt and shorts she wondered if she should start staying at Grimmauld Place all the time. Sirius was annoying, but he needed the company. Remus was nice, polite, and talented, but he was so modest. Usually that would be a good thing, but he seemed to think that because he was a werewolf he wasn't worth as much as everybody else.

"I'll have to change his mind," Tonks whispered to herself, climbing into bed. The painting he had given her was on the bedside table; nobody with that much talent should be modest. They should be conceited and arrogant. But perhaps he didn't let very many people see his art, thus not getting any compliments or confidence in himself. And he did have really nice blue eyes; whenever she looked into them she felt as if she was drowning in the sea...

Where had _that _thought come from? Deciding to ignore it, and to never write romantic poetry, she fell asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**(A/N: Please comment and review! Sorry for any errors.)**

July 3, 1995 8:37pm

Remus was content. He had just woken up to see his room filled with sunlight, illuminating the space that was usually dreary. That night he had guard duty at the Department of Mysteries, which was boring, but his partner, Tonks, was sure to liven things up a bit.

After laying in bed enjoying life for a while he decided it was time to get up. He showered and dressed in his favourite, long-sleeved, blue shirt and a pair of faded jeans.

When he reached the kitchen he discovered Molly and Sirius huddled together at the stove; Molly had apparently been trying to teach him to cook, as part of her hair was smoking slightly.

"Ah, there you are, Moony," Sirius said, setting a plate of pancakes and bacon on the counter and pulling up a chair next to it. "I made you breakfast, and I only had a little help!"

"He got to stir the pancake batter," Molly said proudly.

"Thanks, Padfoot," Remus said. His friend beamed. "And thank you, too, Molly. I hope you didn't go to too much trouble."

"It was nothing, dear. You should really eat more, you look peaky..." Molly told him.

Remus smiled. It was obvious that she had done most of the work, and he was grateful that she had taken the time to make sure that the residents of 12 Grimmauld Place weren't starving to death.

"Moony," Sirius said after Remus had finished eating and Molly had left.

"What?" Remus asked.

"Molly said that we would be invaded by gingers in precisely nine days," his friend informed him.

"Really? She said those exact words?" he replied.

"That's what she meant. I need your help with cleaning out the four rooms that they'll be staying in," Sirius answered.

Remus sighed. He didn't really want to spend a beautiful day like this cleaning, but it had to be done. "Where do we start?"

"Ginny and Hermione's room, formerly the room of Crabbe, one of my distant relatives," Sirius said, getting up.

Ginny and Hermione's room turned out to be the first room on the first floor; it was separated from Tonks's room by a bathroom.

"If Crabbe was a _distant _relative, then why does he have a room in The House of _Black_?" Remus asked as Sirius walked into the room. Remus followed cautiously.

"The Black's were so proud of their wealth that they advertised it to all the related families by giving everyone a room, even the ones that only came over a few times a year," Sirius replied.

Crabbe's room was nothing like Bellatrix's. In fact, it was much the opposite; it looked like it belonged to a small child, not a death eater. The walls were covered in a cheerful shade of yellow, and the bedspread was a soft blue. The chest of drawers had photographs of small furry animals on it.

"Are you joking me?" Sirius was laughing at the stuffed teddy bear that rested on the pillow. "I mean, his nickname was Cry baby Crabbe, but I didn't think he was _this_ bad!"

"Shut up Padfoot. Shut up now," Remus whispered.

"Aw, are you offended? Do you sleep with a teddy bear, too?" Sirius teased.

Remus pointed to a large hole in the wall. Tiny faces were peering out at them, laughing. Their blue bodies were clothed scantily with bit of cloth, and wings were attached to their backs.

"Pixies!" Sirius squealed. "I love pixies, because they love playing tricks on people!" As he said this, two pixies flew out of the wall and over to Sirius. They started chattering in their high pitched voices; Remus had no idea what they were saying.

"Look, Moony, aren't they cute?" The pixies were tangling in Sirius's hair, forming knots that would be impossible to get out.

"They're mischief makers, Padfoot! We need to get rid of them!" Remus shouted.

"I know! Just like me! Hey... STOP THAT!" He frantically brushed the pixies out of his hair. They flew away, laughing. "They touched my hair! My precious hair!" he wailed.

Remus was too busy trying to hit the pixies with a curse to fell much sympathy for his friend. "Stupefy! Stupefy!" He hit one, put more pixies were coming out of the wall now; they flew over to him and attempted to pick him up by his ears.

It took an hour for Remus (Sirius left the room sobbing about his hair) to stun all the pixies and shove their tiny blue bodies into a cage that he conjured. After magically reinforcing the cage, which he put in the sitting room to give to Hagrid, he fixed the hole in the wall and cleaned the dust off of all the furniture.

"Thanks for the help, mate," he told Sirius when he found his friend in the kitchen, making instant mashed potatoes.

"Any time," he replied, not getting the fact that Remus was being sarcastic.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**(A/N:)**

July 3, 1995 4:03pm

Tonks was in a bad mood. Her job was boring; all she did was paperwork and pretended to look for her mischievous cousin, who, she knew, was safe and sound at Grimmauld Place, probably complaining about how he wasn't allowed outside.

She gathered up her things and headed outside of the Ministry of Magic. The weather was cheerful, but that probably meant that Sirius was grumpy. She apparated to Grimmauld and actually made it all the way in the front door before she tripped on part of the carpet and fell flat on her face. Mrs. Black started screaming.

"Not again!" Sirius shouted, running out of the sitting room and closing the curtains over his mother. "Oh, hi there, Tonksie."

"Sorry," she muttered, getting up, glaring at the carpet.

"Oh, don't look so miserable," he told her. "At least you weren't locked up here cleaning all day."

"At least you weren't outside in the hot sun looking for your annoying cousin," she snapped.

"At least you didn't get attacked by pixies, like Remus did," he retorted.

"At least—wait, what? Is he okay?" she asked, suddenly worried.

Sirius laughed. "He's fine. His ears are a bit sore, though, and he's napping in the sitting room. Well, he's probably awake now. "

"Talking about me behind my back isn't very nice," said a very tired Remus as he appeared in the doorway.

"You got attacked by pixies!" Tonks asked him.

"Yeah, they were in Crabbe's old bedroom. Sirius left me and I had to get rid of them myself," he said sadly. "And then I had to scrub the first floor with a bewitched mop, which tried to attack me."

"Aw, poor Remus," Tonks said, and then turned to her cousin. "Why did you leave him? That's so mean; the pixies could have thrown him out the window!"

"They messed up my hair! My precious hair, it's so gorgeous, like black satin..." Sirius replied. He continued complimenting himself, even after Tonks left the room. "I'm so handsome, yes, like Johnny Depp..."

Tonks retreated to her bedroom, where she was safely away from her arrogant, talkative cousin. She lay on her bed, studying the painting that Remus had given her. She actually looked rather nice with purple hair; maybe she should change it? She screwed up her face and morphed her hair into the purple spikes that she had in the picture. Conjuring a mirror, she scrutinized her new look. Before she could decide if it made her look peaky or not, there was a knock on the door.

"Hello, Nymphadora," Remus said when she opened it.

"Wotcher, Remus. Don't call me that," Tonks replied.

"I like your hair. I came up her to remind you that you have guard duty tonight," he told her.

"Thanks. What time is it again?" she asked. She'd totally forgotten about the little slip of paper Dumbledore had given her a few nights ago.

"Seven o'clock until twelve. You're paired with me," he said, then turned and went down the stairs.

"Wonderful," Tonks muttered to herself after she'd shut the door. "Less sleep and I have work tomorrow."

Tonks spent the next two and a half hours napping, and then went downstairs for supper (a Muggle food called microwaveable tacos). The only problem with this was that they didn't have a microwave, so they had to get Remus to heat them on the stove (whenever Sirius or Tonks tried to use the stove something always got caught on fire).

"Ready?" Remus asked her when she exited her bedroom at 6:59 wearing torn jeans and a teal Weird Sisters T-shirt. She nodded, and they left the house (leaving a very lonely Sirius) and walked to the apparition spot.

The next five hours were boring. She fell asleep twice and Remus had to wake her up. They saw nobody, and when they returned to Grimmauld Tonks fell into bed and slept for five and a half hours before getting up to go to work.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

**(A/N: )**

July 4, 1995 9:36am

In the first room on the second floor, where Ron and Harry would be staying, there was furniture; lots of it. Beds, chests, tables, and chairs were crammed into the room, stacked on top of each other and covered in cobwebs.

"Yay, more cleaning," Sirius said sarcastically.

"Well, at least we don't have to go out and buy furniture now," Remus said, trying to be cheerful.

"I wish we could, it would be so much easier," his friend grumbled, tugging at a king sized bed that was at the bottom of the stack.

"Sirius, don't—" Remus said as all the things on top if the bed came crashing down.

"We could use this for Molly and Arthur, don't you think?" Sirius asked. "After we clean it, of course."

They worked up until lunch time, cleaning pieces of furniture that they needed and testing them out to make sure they weren't cursed. Quite a few of them collapsed when somebody sat down, and some even attacked.

"My bum hurts," moaned Sirius as Remus set a sandwich on the kitchen counter for him. "That bloody chair—why did it even have teeth? Chairs aren't supposed to have teeth..." he shoved the whole sandwich inside his mouth and attempted to continue talking.

"Have some manners would you, Padfoot?" Remus sighed.

"Mph? " Sirius said around his food.

"What?"

"I said, why? No one's around," he said after swallowing.

"_I'm _around, and I find talking with your mouth full disgusting. "Besides, you don't even taste—"

"Filthy blood traitors, invading my beautiful house! Out, out!" screamed a voice from upstairs.

"Hey. Bill," Sirius greeted the long-haired Weasley as he came down the stairs.

"Hey. Sorry about setting your mum off, I must have been too loud with the door," Bill replied as Remus went upstairs to close the curtains around Mrs. Black's portrait. "Anyway," he continued when Remus returned, "as you know, Hermione Granger will be staying here soon, and we need a safe way to bring her to Grimmauld Place. She has been told the location of the house by Dumbledore, but her parents, being Muggles, have not. We are going to pick her up at a Muggle restaurant in London the day before my family moves in here."

"Okay. Why do we need to know this?" Sirius asked. "It won't be dangerous, surely."

"Well, it's the same thing as getting Harry. We don't _think_ Death Eaters are going to try to attack, but we can't be sure. They might think Hermione knows something about The Order, so they could try to kidnap her for information," Bill explained. "It's not really a big deal, but we're going to need a few people to escort her here. Kingsley's already volunteered."

"I'll come," Remus said.

"Me too," Sirius chimed in.

"You're not allowed to leave the house, Padfoot," Remus reminded him.

Sirius made a face. "Fine. Tonks will go, she has off that day."

"Okay, I'll tell Mum," Bill replied, then headed back up the stairs.

"Moony, I want to go out," Sirius whined after Bill had left. "I'm sick and tired of being stuck in the house every single day. Can't we go for a walk or something?"

"No, it's too dangerous," Remus answered.

"I'll go as Snuffles, no one will recognize me!" Sirius pleaded. He turned to look out the grimy kitchen window; at the trees and sunlight.

Remus sighed. It was beautiful weather, but even in his dog form Sirius would be in danger. But still...

"Go get your leash, Padfoot," he told his friend. "This is the only time I'm letting you out of the house, so don't ask again."

"What? You're going to take me for a walk?" Sirius exclaimed. He hadn't really expected Remus to say yes. "Yay!" He ran upstairs to find his leash and was back in less than two minutes.

The weather was perfect for a walk; it was warm, but not to the point where it was uncomfortable. There was a pleasant breeze that messed up Remus's hair, but watching his friend being so happy more than made up for it.

They walked to a nearby park, where Remus let Snuffles off his leash so he could run around and chase butterflies and all the things dogs love to do. Children rushed over to pet him, and he nuzzled their hands affectionately.

By the time they made it back to Grimmauld Place it was late; the sun had started going down, and Tonks was home.

"Tonksie!" squealed Sirius. "I got to go outside today! It was so much fun..."

Remus smiled as Sirius described the children and the sunshine and the butterflies. He went up the stairs to his room without the others noticing and got out his sketchbook. He drew the outline of a big black dog chasing after a butterfly; there was sunshine illuminating the puffy clouds in the background, and grass so green it hurt his eyes to look at. He meant to add more detail to the sky, but he ended up falling asleep, happy that he had been able to provide such a wonderful day for his friend.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**(A/N: Please continue to comment and review! Sorry for any errors. I know this chapter might sound I little random, but I have the whole story planned out, so don't worry. )**

July 11, 1995 9:26am

"I still don't see why you volunteered me to do this," Tonks grumbled.

"Oh, stop pretending to be upset," Sirius told her. "I know you're excited o meet Hermione, she's the brightest witch of her age."

They were in Bellatrix's old room, putting down blue carpeting before Molly and Arthur moved in. Tonks was unrolling the carpet while walking backwards. Inevitably, she tripped.

"What the he muttered.

"I'm clumsy, deal with it," Tonks replied.

"No, look," he said, pointing to the spot on the floor where she'd tripped. A floorboard had come out of place, revealing a small compartment with a box in it. Tonks hesitantly picked it up.

"It's locked, of course," she said. "_Alohomora_." There was a click as the box unlocked.

"Well, that was easy," Sirius said. "She probably thought nobody would find it because Cuddles' cage was on top of it."

"Do you think that's why the dragon was there?" Tonks asked. "To guard it?"

Sirius shrugged. He took the box from her and opened it. "Seriously?" he asked. The box was filled with papers; photographs, postcards, notes. "Boring," he said, handing the box back to his cousin.

"I'll go through it later," Tonks said, standing up. "It's almost time to pick up Hermione." She went downstairs to find Remus pulling his shoes on and Kingsley tapping his foot impatiently.

"Ready?" Kinsley asked her. "Remus is going to take us by side-along apparition to the place we're meeting her; he's been there before."

They soon arrived at a small Muggle fast food place.

"I think that's her," Remus said, pointing through the window at a bushy haired teenager drinking an iced coffee. They went inside and headed for the girl, glancing at the people they passed making sure none were death eaters.

"Ooh, can I get a milkshake?" Tonks asked. She'd noticed the picture on the menu.

"No, Tonks," Kingsley told her. "We're here to get Hermione, not eat."

"Professor Lupin!" the bushy haired girl had noticed Remus, and she launched herself into his arms. Remus looked extremely surprised to be hugged by a former student, but he briefly wrapped his arms around her.

"I haven't seen you in ages!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hermione, this is Kinsley Shacklebolt, an auror and chef," Remus said. Kingsley bowed. "And this is Nymphadora Tonks, also an auror and a metamorphmagus."

"Nice to meet you," Tonks said. "And don't call me Nymphadora, my name is Tonks. Got that Remus?"

Remus just smiled.

"My trunk is in the car," Hermione told them. They waited while she hugged her parents goodbye, then followed her out to the parking lot. After retrieving her trunk the walked to a nearby alley, where they took her by side-along apparition to Grimmauld Place.

"That was horrible!" Hermione exclaimed.

"What, apparating?" Kingsley asked. "Well it takes some getting used to."

They walked to number twelve, where Sirius greeted them at the door. "'Mione!" he squealed. Hermione looked rather startled.

"Calm down, Sirius," Tonks said, laughing.

"Mudbloods, bloodtraitors, and shapeshifters! Invading the house of my father's! Out, out, out!" screamed Mrs. Black.

While the others were explaining about the Order and the House of Black, Tonks went upstairs, eager to look through Bellatrix's box. She dumped its contents out on her bad and picked up a random photograph, then dropped it in surprise. It was a Muggle photograph; Bella and another woman she didn't recognize were quite solitary. They seemed to be at some sort of party, as they were wearing high heels and skanky dresses; Muggle clothes. But Bella, being the evil death eater that she was, would rather die than interact with Muggles, yet it was her in the photo, and she was even hugging her friend.

Tonks looked at the other photos; they were all Muggle, and in all of them her aunt was dressed like a slut. Setting them aside, she picked up a stack of postcards from places like California and Paris and Hong Kong. There were pieces of paper taped—yes, not connected by magic, but taped—to them, stating what she'd done and who she'd met in these places. Nothing in the box gave any clue that Bella was a witch.

"Sweet Merlin," murmured a very confused Tonks. She studied her Aunt's face in the photos; she was very young, twenty at the most.

There was a knock on the door, and Tonks threw a blanket over the contents of the box, just in case it was Hermione. Sure enough, when she opened the door the teenage witch was standing there, balancing a stack of books on one hand.

"Hi, Tonks," Hermione said. "Are you busy?"

"Wotcher, 'Mione," Tonks replied. "And no, not really."

"Oh. I was wondering..."She stopped talking, her eyes focused on something behind Tonks. "Is... is that a gun on your floor?"

"What? No, I don't own..." Tonks started.

Hermione crossed the room and picked up a metal object that was on the floor beside her bed.

"I—that's not mine," Tonks explained. "I was going through some stuff I found and that must have been among it."

"So you're not like, a mass murderer or anything, right?" Hermione asked.

"Of course not, Dumbledore wouldn't have let me in the Order if I was," Tonks told her, laughing. "What were you going to say before?"

"I was wondering if there was a library on this place, is all," Hermione said, putting the gun down on Tonks's bed, ignoring the rustling noise that happened when she did this, and also ignoring the fact that the bed was strangely lumpy.

"There is, actually, Fourth floor, only door on the left." Tonks answered.

"Thanks," Hermione said, then left the room.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

(A/N: Sorry, I'm a day late updating! There was a big storm last night and I lost power.)

July 12, 1995 10:24am

Wherever Remus looked he saw gingers; the Weasleys had moved in. Thankfully, the four rooms they were using had previously been cleaned and cleared of dark objects. Molly and Arthur were pleased with their room, having no idea that it had formerly belonged to a raving mad death eater. Ron, however, was not very happy.

"When are you picking up Harry, again?" he asked for the millionth time.

"August fifth," Remus replied patiently.

"Can't it be sooner?" he whined.

"No, Ron. Why don't you go spend some time with Hermione and Ginny, or maybe your brothers?" Remus suggested.

"But they're girls! And Fred and George are always busy with their stupid joke shop!" Ron complained.

"I'm sorry. Why don't you read a book?" Remus said. Ron left the room mumbling to himself.

But Ron, of course, wasn't the worst of it. Ginny and Hermione were always giggling to each other about something, and it made Remus rather uncomfortable. He always wondered if they found him amusing.

Then there were the twins. For the protection of the residents of twelve, Grimmauld, both Mad-Eye and Kingsley were right across the hall from them. There were constant explosion sounds coming from their room, along with the occasional yell. Remus really didn't care what they were doing, but he wished that whatever it was, they wouldn't do it at one o'clock in the morning, as his room was right next to theirs. That night he knocked on their door, meaning to tell them off for being so loud. They didn't open it, so Remus let himself in. It was dark in the room except for bright flashed of flame that illuminated Fred and George's faces, as well as several dangerous looking objects and a few cages.

"Would you two please keep it down? I am trying to—" A loud roar from one of the cages, a rattling sound, and an explosion from the cauldron in the corner cut him off. Deciding that the situation was hopeless, he left the room.

"Sorry, Professor!" both twins called after him.

Safely back in his room, Remus put silencing charms on his walls and door. This muffled the sound, but didn't block it completely. "Teenagers," he muttered to himself.

The next morning he woke up late; half past eleven to be exact, and that was only because Molly Weasley practically broke down his bedroom door trying to make sure he was okay.

"Are you sure you're all right, Remus?" she asked when he came downstairs for a late breakfast.

"Full moon is coming up," Remus said. "That's all." He decided not to tell her about the twins; they seemed to be experimenting, which was good for their creativity, and also educational. Or so he told himself.

"Moony..." Sirius groaned, entering the library later on that day.

"Yes, Padfoot?" Remus sighed.

"I'm hungover, Moony. Make me a hangover potion." Sirius slumped down on the sofa next to the fireplace.

"I'm busy, make it yourself," Remus told him. He was getting annoyed with his friends drinking habits.

"Moony..."

"Leave me alone! I'm in a bad mood, it's almost full moon!" Remus snapped.

"Wotcher, Remus, Sirius," Tonks greeted as she stepped through the door.

"Hello, Nymph—"

"Don't talk to Moony, he's PMSing," Sirius interrupted.

"What?" Tonks laughed.

"You know. Pre Moonal Syndrome," Sirius explained. "He gets all crabby and stuff this time of the month."

"Lovely," Tonks said. "Molly asked—"

"His tits start hurting too," Sirius cut in.

"Padfoot!" Remus snapped. "Do you mind?"

"Aw, I see, he's embarrassed to talk about it," Sirius said. "How cute."

"Um, right... Anyway, Molly asked if you wanted to come down for dinner, or if you just want to eat later," Tonks told Remus.

"Just tell her I'll eat later," Remus replied. "And ignore Sirius."

"Okay. I hope you feel better." She left the room.

"Moony..."

"What?"

"I still need a hangover potion..."

That night, just as Remus was about to go to bed, there was a knock on his door. He opened it to find Tonks, who was holding a wooden box.

"Wotcher, Remus," she said. "I found this in Bella's room... and, well, it's kind of strange..."

The two of them went through the box, both getting more puzzled by the minute.

"But Bellatrix hates Muggles!" Remus exclaimed.

"I know. It's very odd, isn't it? She joined the death eaters right after graduating from Hogwarts," Tonks said. "And look at her wrist in this photo—there's this spot right here, where it looks like she tried to cover up the dark mark with make-up or something."

Remus shook his head, confused. "I don't know what to think. It's a mystery."

"Goodnight, then," Tonks said, leaving the room with the box.

"Goodnight, Nymphadora."

"Don't call me that!"


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

**(A/N: Please continue to comment and review! Sorry for any errors. I recently posted another story, which is very short, about Hermione fixing her parents memories after the war. )**

Tonks spent the next few weeks bonding with Hermione and Ginny. They spent hours giggling about random things, which seemed to annoy Remus. This, of course, just made them giggle louder, as annoying Remus was actually quite fun.

At mealtimes Tonks changed her nose into the noses of various animals and occasionally foods. This entertained her young friends, who she thought of as little sisters, to no end.

One day while Hermione was in the library reading, Tonks taught Ginny the bat bogey hex, which she tested out on Fred and George with fabulous results. She also told her to flick dungbombs at doors in order to see if they had Imperturbable Charms on them, as Molly had taken to doing this after she'd found out about the twins' latest invention. The extendable ear had been made to spy on Order meetings, but came in handy for other things as well. Tonks had made sure to steal a pair before Molly confiscated them all.

One night Ron started screaming in the middle of the night; Kreacher had apparently showed up in his room and went through his underwear drawer. Ron had swatted the elf with a pillow, which made him very mad. Kreacher started crying about how his mistress's house was being ruined by filthy bloodtraitors and Mudbloods, who had no respect for the House of Black. Sirius had showed up and ordered Kreacher out of the room, then ordered everyone in the house, who had all rushed into Ron's room to see the show, to go to bed. Kreacher grudgingly obeyed Sirius. Everyone else did not.

As for Tonks's work and the Order, the things she probably should have been focusing on, well, let's just say that they were boring. Nothing was happening. No one ever showed up to try to kidnap Harry, just as no one ever showed up to steal the prophecy in the department of mysteries.

The mystery of Bella's box was also going nowhere. It just didn't make sense; Voldemort surely would have killed Bella if he'd known that she was willingly associating with Muggles, so that left two possibilities; either he didn't know what she was doing, or she was really working undercover for him. Whatever the answer, Bella was safely locked up in Azkaban.

August 2, 1995

The Order of the Phoenix was no longer boring; dementors had attacked Harry. Dumbledore went to the Ministry, trying to ensure that he wouldn't be expelled for using magic to save his and his cousin's lives. Afterword he came to Grimmauld Place to speak with Mundungus Fletcher, which was the scariest thing Tonks had ever seen; she huddled with Hermione and Ginny on the staircase, watching Dumbledore shouting. Yes, shouting; she'd never, ever heard Dumbledore shout before. At one point she was convinced that he would use the Cruciatus Curse, but he never even drew his wand. There was an emergency Order meeting that night, in which arrangements were made to rescue him from the Dursleys. Tonks, of course, volunteered to be part of his guard; the last time she'd seen him he'd been a baby, and she was quite curious to see what he looked like now. They did, however, still need a plan to get his relatives out of the way.

"What are they like, the Dursleys?" Tonks asked Hermione one day while they were brainstorming a plan.

"Harry says they're horrible. They're mean, fat, and ugly," Hermione replied. "They care a lot about looks; cars, clothes, etc. His Aunt's favourite activity is cleaning."

"They sound like lunatics. I mean, cleaning, really?" Tonks said. "I guess we could work with that. I mean, we could enter them in some sort of contest, I suppose. Let's see... most exotic house colour?"

Hermione just laughed.

"Well, then, maybe not. Cleanest car? Best lawn?" Tonks suggested.

"That would work," said Hermione thoughtfully. "You could send them a letter by using a Muggle post office telling them to go to the prize giving. Use a Muggle computer, so it looks all professional; they won't fall for anything handwritten. But you only have three days, so you'd better mail it soon."

They went to the Muggle library, where Hermione taught Tonks how to use a computer. She started typing. Very. Slowly.

"I'll do it, I'm faster," Hermione sighed. She typed up a very professional sounding letter, and they walked to the post office to mail it.

"Ooh, stickers!" Tonks squealed.

"Those are stamps, Tonks. No! You only need one!" Hermione peeled off four of the five stamps that Tonks had stuck on the envelope. "There. Now we put it in this metal thingy and it will reach the Dursleys tomorrow."

"If I climb in the metal thingy will I end up at the Dursleys, too?" Tonks asked, sticking her head into it.

"No! You don't have any stamps on you, and don't do that, people are looking at us weird!" Hermione tugged her friend out of the metal thingy and they walked to a nearby alley, where they apparated, Hermione by side-along, back to Grimmauld Place.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

**(A/N: Sorry for any errors! I didn't have the book to refer to on this chapter, so that's why it's not very detailed. )**

August 5, 1995

"Why can't we just take Harry to Grimmauld Place by side-along apparition like we did with Hermione?" Tonks asked Remus as they prepared to leave for the Dursleys' house.

"Harry is the only wizard that lives near Privet Drive, therefore any magical activity done in that area will be blamed on him. Considering he might be expelled from Hogwarts for underage magic, it would be foolish to attempt anything that might get him in bigger trouble," Remus explained to her patiently.

They flew by broomsticks to the Dursleys', where Tonks broke a plate as soon as she entered the kitchen.

"Shit!" she whispered. Mad-Eye glared at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him in return. "_Reparo_!"

Harry appeared at the top of the staircase soon after, and Remus explained why they were there. Tonks went upstairs to help him pack while Remus wrote a letter to the Dursleys, and when she came back downstairs her hair was back to pink.

The ride to Grimmauld Place could be described in two words; freezing and uneventful. Mad-Eye kept wanting to check that no one was following them, but Tonks managed to talk him out of it. They arrived at Grimmauld Place, where the Order meeting had already started.

"Everything went fine," Kinsley said when they entered the meeting. "No death eater sightings, nothing suspicious."

"My fingers are still purple," Tonks said cheerfully.

During supper Tonks entertained Harry, Hermione, and Ginny by morphing her nose, as usual. Remus resisted the urge to laugh at the pig snout one, as he was having a very serious discussion about goblins with Bill and Arthur.

After supper Sirius brought up the topic of Voldemort, and why Harry hadn't started asking questions the moment he'd arrived. Molly was against telling him anything, when Remus cut in and said Harry should be allowed to know a certain amount of information, instead of getting misinformed by others. By others he meant the twins, who, he knew, still had a secret stash of extendable ears under their George's bed.

This resulted in making Molly angry, as Sirius let slip that Voldemort was after a weapon. The five teenagers were ordered to go to bed at once.

"Molly sure gets angry easily, doesn't she," Tonks told Remus later that night. They were sitting on the sofa in the library, Remus attempting to read.

"She does, yes," Remus replied. "Why did you tell her that you only tripped over that umbrella stand twice? It seems to get in your way every time you enter the house!"

"Well, she doesn't need to know that," Tonks said, defending herself. "And it wasn't really a lie, anyway; it _was_ only the second time I've tripped over it when she was watching."

Remus chuckled softly. "I am trying to read in here you know, Nymphadora. You're distracting me. "

"Don't call me that!" Tonks snapped. "And if you want me to leave, you should just say so."

"I don't want you to leave; I just want you to be quiet," Remus told her.

She shut up, and Remus returned to reading his book. The next time he glanced up, Tonks was sitting a little close to him. He returned to reading, but then looked up to see her a little closer. The next time he looked up her face was three inches away from his.

"Aghh!" he said, startled. "What are you doing?"

"I'm proving that I can be quiet and ninja like," Tonks replied.

Remus thought about this for a moment. It was true; he hadn't heard her sneaking up on him at all, and, since he was a werewolf, he had pretty good hearing. "Well... good job, then. You're not clumsy all the time." Then he returned to reading his book.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

**(A/N: Sorry for any errors! Again, I did not have the book to refer to on this chapter, so some things might be out of order. )**

August 11, 1995

Rufus Scrimgeour was becoming suspicious about Kingsley and Tonks. He cornered them just as they were about to leave the Ministry —it had been another boring day, spent doing paperwork and listening to Kinsley's long speech about why Sirius Black was almost certainly in Tibet.

Their first thought when the Head of the Auror Office asked to speak to the was that they were both soon going to be in Azkaban—he had surely figured out that they were friends of Sirius and was only confirming his suspicions.

However, when he started talking it wasn't about Sirius at all—it was about the Department of Mysteries. Apparently Mundungus had gotten caught on his shift to guard the prophecy, and he had said that he was there to meet Kingsley and Tonks who were friends of his.

"Why would he have come to the ministry at two o'clock in the morning, looking for two aurors who had gone home hours ago? Any ideas?" Scrimgeour asked. He could sense something funny, Tonks could tell.

"Well, you see, sir," she said before Kingsley could speak, "We had asked him some questions a few days ago about some of the objects he tends to sell. They're probably nothing to worry about, but Kingsley and I wanted to make sure that they weren't dark objects. He was eager to prove his innocence as soon as possible, so he might have decided to show up here having no idea what time we'd be here, and also no idea where the Auror office is."

Scrimgeour stared at her; it wasn't a very good story, and she couldn't tell if he believed her or not. "So neither of you have any ideas as to why he ended up in the Department of Mysteries? And you two, surely, have nothing to do with that particular area of the Ministry either?"

"Of course not," Kingsley said in his deep, reassuring voice. "Mundungus probably just got lost; he's not very bright, you see."

Scrimgeour stared at them for a moment before saying, "Very well. You may leave, and tell your friend not to show up here anymore."

"Do you think he believed us?" Tonks asked nervously.

"Probably, but we're going to have to make sure everyone in the Order knows how to perform a Disillusionment Charm, just in case," Kingsley replied. "As for Mundungus, we'll talk to him about being more careful. I don't think he could survive Dumbledore's wrath again, after what happened with Harry."

They apparated to Grimmauld Place, where Tonks went into the sitting room, hoping to relax, but Remus had other ideas.

"You're late," he said.

"So?" Tonks said, rather annoyed at him.

"I just got a Patronus from Dumbledore, saying that we need to go check out Malfoy Manor. Nothing big, we just need to watch the place," he told her. "Considering that Harry saw Lucius at Voldemort's side last year, after the Triwizard Tournament, it is safe to assume that he's a death eater, which means we need to keep an eye on him."

"Can't someone else do it?"Tonks moaned. "I'm exhausted. "

"Dumbledore said that it would be a good idea to have an auror with me, and Kingsley and Mad-Eye are both doing other things for the Order," Remus replied.

After much grumbling from Sirius, who did not want two of his favourite people leaving him by himself, they left for Malfoy Manor. The house was large and slightly creepy, with peacocks strutting around behind the gate, which, of course, was locked.

"Remus!" Tonks whispered, wondering where he'd went. They both had Disillusionment Charms on, which was annoying, considering they couldn't see each other.

"I'm right here," Remus whispered from somewhere behind her. His hand closed around her wrist, making her jump.

"How do we get in?" she asked.

"We're going to have to climb the hedge. Be very careful, and don't bump into any peacocks. They're standing guard over the house for Lucius," Remus said.

"That's all they have protecting them? Peacocks?" Tonks snorted.

"That's all they have protecting the grounds. The house is almost impossible to enter, but luckily the Malfoys have never heard of extendable ears." Remus slipped the flesh coloured object out of his pocket. "We'll slip this through a window or something, then just listen for the rest of the night. "

"The rest of the night?" Tonks exclaimed.

"Shh! Keep your voice down! And yes, the rest of the night. You don't have work tomorrow, right?" Remus asked.

"I have guard duty!" Tonks whispered.

"Get someone else to do it for you, then," Remus replied softly, as they made their way over to the hedge, which was strangely sturdy looking. "Ouch!" He had made the mistake of touching the hedge, which, they now saw, had thousands of tiny thorns in it.

"Let's hope they're not poisonous," Tonks told him. "How about you just lift me over the hedge with a levitating charm?"

After a half hour and many cuts and bruises, both of them had made it to the other side of the hedge. They made their way up to the house, where they managed to slip an extendable ear through the window.

"Oh. My. Chocolate. Syrup," Tonks said, in shock of what the voices coming out of the extendable ear were saying.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

**(A/N: Please continue to review! I managed to get a hold of the book for this chapter, but there still might be some errors, sorry. One year ago yesterday the last HP movie came to theatres! )**

August 11, 1995 9:02pm

"No, Draco!" Narcissa was saying. "Absolutely not! It's too dangerous, and you're only fifteen. Maybe when you're older you can—"

"You're just scared!" Draco shouted back. "I bet you're not even loyal to him anyway, you just pretend to be because you think he might hurt you! At least I'm positive who's side I'm on; I don't go back and forth depending on what's in it for me!"

"Don't talk to me that way!" Narcissa ordered. "I'm not going to tell you what's going on, so just stop bugging me about it!"

The sound of angry footsteps leaving the room could be heard through the extendable ear.

"He's just curious, my dear," Lucius said. "Why not tell him about the attack we have planned?"

"Planned? Planned? We've barely thought about that idea, much less actually sat down and worked out every single detail! And once we do it the Order might find a way to show the Wizarding World that he's back!" Narcissa argued.

"The Dark Lord doesn't seem to think he'll go unnoticed for more than a year anyway," Lucius replied. "And as for what we have planned... well, I'm sure we could blame it all on your dear cousin."

"Sirius!" Tonks whispered to Remus.

"Anyway, he'll make sure everything goes as it's supposed to," Lucius continued. "For now, I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

There was silence except for the rustle of the wind blowing through the trees. Over the next eight or so hours Tonks fell asleep three times and Remus had to wake her up. At last the sun peeked above the horizon and the two of them managed to get themselves back over the hedge without any broken bones.

"What now?" Tonks asked sleepily as they entered Grimmauld Place; her hair was slowly changing from pink to blonde; apparently she was so exhausted that she couldn't control it.

"We wish good luck to Harry; his hearing is today. After that we meet with Dumbledore, tell him what we've heard... and then we sleep," Remus replied.

They entered the kitchen, where Molly, Arthur, and Sirius were all seated at the kitchen table. Molly immediately began fussing over them, insisting they eat some breakfast.

Sirius was in a particularly bad mood, considering he'd been all alone the night before. They explained to him that they'd had to do Order work, but this didn't make him feel better.

"You could have said goodbye," Sirius grumbled.

"We were running late, thanks to Tonks!" Remus defended himself.

"Well, that's not my fault! Scrimgeour—" she stopped talking, as Harry had appeared in the doorway.

"Breakfast," Molly said, getting to her feet.

"M - m - morning, Harry," yawned Tonks. "Sleep all right?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

"I've b - b - been up all night," she said, with another shuddering yawn. "Come and sit down ..."

She drew out a chair, knocking over the one beside it in the process.

"What do you want, Harry?" Molly called. "Porridge? Muffins? Kippers? Bacon and eggs? Toast?"

"Just - just toast, thanks," said Harry.

Remus glanced at Harry, then said to Tonks, "What were you saying about Scrimgeour?"

"Oh ... yeah ... well, we need to be a bit more careful, he's been asking Kingsley and me funny questions, and I'll have to tell Dumbledore I can't do night duty tomorrow, I'm just too tired," Tonks finished, yawning hugely again.

"I'll cover for you," said Arthur. "I'm OK, I've got a report to finish anyway

Arthur was not wearing wizards' robes but a pair of pinstriped trousers and an old bomber jacket. He turned from Tonks to Harry.

"How are you feeling?"

Harry shrugged.

"It'll all be over soon," Arthur said bracingly. In a few hours' time you'll be cleared."

Harry said nothing.

"The hearing's on my floor, in Amelia Bones's office. She's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and the one who'll be questioning you."

"Amelia Bones is OK, Harry," said Tonks earnestly. "She's fair, she'll hear you out."

Harry nodded.

"Don't lose your temper," said Sirius abruptly. "Be polite and stick to the facts."

Harry nodded again.

"The law's on your side," said Remus quietly. "Even underage wizards are allowed to use magic in life-threatening situations."

Molly attempted to make his hair neater with a wet comb; she pressed hard on the top of his head, but it didn't work. "Doesn't it ever lie flat?" she said desperately.

Harry shook his head.

Arthur checked his watch and looked up at Harry.

"I think we'll go now," he said. "We're a bit early but I think you'll be better off at the Ministry than hanging around here."

"OK," said Harry automatically, dropping his toast and getting to his feet.

"You'll be all right, Harry," said Tonks, patting him on the arm.

"Good luck," said Lupin. "I'm sure it will be fine."

"And if it's not," said Sirius grimly "I'll see to Amelia Bones for you ..."

Harry smiled weakly. Molly hugged him.

"We've all got our fingers crossed," she said.

"Right," said Harry. "Well ... see you later then." He followed Mr Weasley upstairs.

Molly continued staring at the door where they'd left with a worried expression.

"He'll be fine," Remus assured her, then turned to Tonks. "We'd better send a patronus to Dumbledore now, Nymphadora."

"Don't call me that," Tonks mumbled, half asleep.

Dumbledore arrived at Grimmauld Place soon after he received Remus's patronus. They set at the kitchen table and told him what they'd heard at Malfoy Manor, Tonks nearly falling asleep twice.

"Thank you for telling me this," Dumbledore said. He didn't say what he thought the death eater's might be planning. "I'll be leaving now," he said loudly, so that Tonks's eyes flew open to see him smiling at her. She blushed, realizing that she'd nearly fallen asleep _again. _"Which means Nymphadora will be able to get some much needed sleep."


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

**(A/N:Please continue to review! Sorry for any errors. )**

August 14, 1995 11:32am

Grimmauld Place was scary; you never knew what you were going to find, and inanimate objects might attack you. Tonks was getting rather annoyed by this, and finding a ghoul in one of the bathrooms did not help.

"Sirius!" she said as she entered the living room where her cousin, Hermione, Harry, and Ron were sitting around doing nothing.

"Yes, Tonksie?" he said in a bored voice.

"There's a ghoul living in the loo. Help me get rid of it!" Tonks ordered.

Sirius merely yawned. "Why can't you do it yourself? After all, you are an auror..."

Aggravated by her cousin's laziness, Tonks crossed the room, grabbed his arm and began dragging him to the staircase.

"Fine, fine, I'll help!" Sirius grumbled. He began stomping up the stairs, Tonks and the three teenagers following.

They arrived in the bathroom, where loud moaning noises were coming out of the toilet.

"What's it doing in there, I wonder," Sirius muttered. He waved his wand at the toilet, and an ugly, ogre like thing appeared. It had buckteeth and evil looking red eyes. It stared at Ron and Tonks for a while, apparently intrigued by their bright hair, then picked up a roll of toilet paper and threw it at Sirius.

"Hey!" Sirius said. "_Immobulus!" _He aimed his wand at the ghoul, but it moved away, causing the spell to hit the wall, where it bounced off and hit the sink, which caused the sink to explode.

"Great job Sirius!" Tonks shouted as she tried to repair the sink with her wand. The ghoul started to throw shampoo bottles from inside the shower at her cousin, who curled into a ball on the floor.

"Can't you three help?" Tonks asked Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

"Sorry," Hermione giggled. "But we're not allowed to use magic outside of school."

Tonks stuck her middle finger out at her, which seemed to annoy the ghoul, who began throwing toothpaste tubes at her and Sirius.

"HEY! STOP THAT!" Sirius shouted.

"Maybe it thinks you should brush your teeth," said Ron unhelpfully.

Sirius smiled at Ron, showing his ugly, blackened crooked teeth; they didn't have toothbrushes in Azkaban.

Meanwhile, Tonks was firing hex after hex at the stubborn ghoul, who was now throwing knives. Yes, that's right, knives. "I thought ghouls were supposed to be harmless creatures!" she shouted as a knife stuck in the wall behind her.

"Stupefy!" Hermione shouted. The ghoul collapsed on the floor, and Sirius vanished it with a wave of his wand.

"What happened to not using magic outside of school?" Tonks asked.

Hermione blushed and muttered something.

"OH MY GOSH!" Fred said, as he entered the bathroom.

"Little Ms. Perfect BROKE A RULE!" George exclaimed as he followed his brother.

"You two!" Tonks said. "You're of age! Why didn't you help?"

"Because, you're an auror, we wanted to see if you lived up to your title," the twins said at the same time. "And it was hilarious to watch." They left the bathroom, muttering, "What a failure."

"Am I the only person that's wondering why there were so many knives in a bathroom?" Sirius asked.

They looked around; dozens and dozens of knives, shampoo bottles, and toothpaste tubes were everywhere. Deciding that it was best not to comment on the situation, the two cousins vanished all the mess and decided to ignore the broken sink.

"What is going on in here?" Remus exclaimed, walking into the bathroom. "Why are you two still in your pyjamas? It's nearly noon! And what happened to the sink?"

"Why are _you_ still in your pyjamas, Moony?" Sirius asked.

Remus glanced down at his body and blushed. All he was wearing was a plain white undershirt and a pair of boxers. "Because I was asleep, that's why."

"But Moony, as you kindly just informed us, it's nearly noon," Sirius said, enjoying his friend's embarrassment.

"Yeah, well, it was full moon four days ago and I haven't been getting much sleep lately," he muttered. He turned and left the room, hoping that Tonks hadn't noticed the dozens of scars crisscrossing his arms and legs, which of course, she had.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

**(A/N: IMPORTANT: This is my last update for a week. I'm so sorry, but my parents are dragging me to the mountains to 'connect with nature'. My laptop is not coming with me, but I will update as soon as I get back. Please don't give up on my story!)**

August 28, 1995 4:47 pm

"Kingsley told me who the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is," Tonks said as she sat in the newly cleaned drawing room.

"Who is it?" Sirius asked. He was sitting beside her, and was in a very bad mood considering that Harry would be going back to Hogwarts in a few days. Remus was sitting across the room from him, reading.

"She's this utter toad who keeps on trying to get me fired because she thinks pink hair is 'inappropriate for work'," Tonks said. "Her name is Delores Umbridge."

Remus let out a low growl. Tonks looked up, startled. "Have you heard of her, then?"

"She's the one who's made it impossible for me to get a job," Remus said quietly. "She hates part humans; centaurs, werewolves, mermaids, etc. She's a bitch."

"OH MY GOSH MOONY SAID A BAD WORD!" Sirius shouted. "I've never heard him do that before."

"We could nickname her Dumb Bitch," Tonks suggested. "It kind of rhymes with Umbridge."

"How the hell does it rhyme? It doesn't! But it does describe her perfectly," Sirius said.

"No, it doesn't," argued Tonks. "It doesn't say anything about her being fat."

Remus did not join in the conversation; he just glared at his book, his jaw clenched.

"Moony..." Sirius said.

Remus growled, his eyes wild. "She'll be teaching all the kids at Hogwarts to hate people like me! She's going to ruin their minds, turning them against those of us who are already rejected! I want her dead! DEAD!" He slammed his book down and stomped out of the room.

September 1, 1995

"I still can't believe Ron actually was made a prefect!" Molly squealed for the millionth time. They were in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place waiting for Sturgis Podmore to arrive, as he was part of the guard who was to escort Harry to Kings Cross Station.

"Everyone in the family now, except for—"she was cut off by a loud bang and a yell coming from two floors above. They rushed out to the hallway to see two large trunks and Ginny flying down the stairs, and Fred and George following and apologizing profusely.

Both Molly and Mrs. Black started screaming at once.

"- COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS –"

"- FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS –"

Hermione raced down the stairs and helped Tonks lift Ginny to her feet. There was a large lump on the back of her head, but after Molly was done yelling at the twins she fixed it with her wand.

"Now then, we need to get going, we'll miss the train-WILL YOU LOT GET DOWN HERE NOW, PLEASE!" she bellowed.

Not wishing to have her ears harmed any more, Tonks left the house to wait for them outside. She morphed into an old woman, deciding it was best not to let any of her relatives, primarily the Malfoys, know that she was associating with Harry. As a finishing tough, she conjured an odd purple hat shaped like a pork pie.

Molly, Harry, and a big black dog showed up a few minutes later. "Wotcher, Harry," she said, winking. "Better hurry up, hadn't we, Molly?"she added, checking her watch.

"I know, I know," moaned Mrs. Weasley, lengthening her stride, "but Mad-Eye wanted to wait for Sturgis… if only Arthur could have got us cars from the Ministry again… but Fudge won't let him borrow so much as an empty ink bottle these days… _how_ Muggles can stand travelling without magic..."

It took them twenty minutes to reach King's Cross on foot and nothing more eventful happened during that time than Sirius scaring a couple of cats for Harry's entertainment. Once inside the station they lingered casually beside the barrier between platforms nine and ten until the coast was clear, then each of them leaned against it in turn and fell easily through on to platform nine and three-quarters, where the Hogwarts Express stood belching sooty steam over a platform packed with departing students and their families.

"I hope the others make it in time," said Mrs. Weasley anxiously, staring behind her at the wrought-iron arch spanning the platform, through which new arrivals would come.

"Nice dog, Harry!" called a tall boy with dreadlocks.

"Thanks, Lee," said Harry, grinning, as Sirius wagged his tail frantically.

"Oh good," said Molly, sounding relieved, "here's Alastor with the luggage, look…"

A porter's cap pulled low over his mismatched eyes, Moody came limping through the archway pushing a trolley loaded with their trunks.

"All OK," he muttered to Molly and Tonks, "don't think we were followed…"

Seconds later, Arthur emerged on to the platform with Ron and Hermione. They had almost unloaded Moody's luggage trolley when Fred, George and Ginny turned up with Remus.

"No trouble?" growled Moody.

"Nothing," said Remus.

"I'll still be reporting Sturgis to Dumbledore," said Moody, 'that's the second time he's not turned up in a week. Getting as unreliable as Mundungus."

"Well, look after yourselves," said Remus, shaking hands all round. He reached Harry last and gave him a clap on the shoulder. "You too. Harry. Be careful."

"Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled," said Moody, shaking Harry's hand too."And don't forget, all of you - careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."

"It's been great meeting all of you," said Tonks, hugging Hermione and Ginny. "We'll see you soon, I expect."

A warning whistle sounded; the students still on the platform started hurrying on to the train.

"Quick, quick," said Molly distractedly, hugging them at random and catching Harry twice. "Write… be good… if you've forgotten anything we'll send it on… on to the train, now, hurry…"

For one brief moment, the great black dog reared on to its hind legs and placed its front paws on Harry's shoulders, but Molly shoved Harry away towards the train door, hissing, "For heaven's sake, act more like a dog, Sirius!"

"See you!" Harry called out of the open window as the train began to move, while Ron, Hermione and Ginny waved beside him.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

**(A/N: So sorry for the delay! I'm home much later than I thought I'd be. I'll have another chapter up tomorrow! )**

September 10 , 1995

Now that Harry and the others had gone back to Hogwarts Sirius was in an extremely bad mood. He snapped at anybody who tried to talk to him, and he got drunk every night. On the day after full moon he ate all of Remus's chocolate and didn't even apologize. Tonks, who had off from work that day, was seriously considering leaving the house, as both of its inhabitants were not being very nice to her.

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius!" she shouted as she walked into the kitchen to find her cousin drinking a bottle of firewhiskey. "It's not even noon yet!"

"If you have a problem with my drinking habits you can go away," retorted Sirius angrily.

Tonks glared at her cousin, then went upstairs to send a patronus to Izzy, short for Isabel, one of her friends from Hogwarts, saying that if she wasn't bust she could come over to Tonks's flat for a while. Izzy replied immediately, saying that she'd be there within the hour.

Just as Tonks was about to leave Grimmauld Place Sirius appeared, demanding to know what she was doing.

"Going away, just like you wanted me to," Tonks replied, her hand already on the doorknob.

"What? No! I didn't mean it when I said—"

"Too bad," said Tonks, cutting him off. "I have a friend coming over to my flat, and she tends to be early."

"BLOODTRAITORS, OUT OUT OUT!" Mrs. Black screamed.

"No, Tonksie, I'm sorry!" wailed Sirius.

"I'm not leaving forever," Tonks told him. "I'll be back soon." With that, she left Grimmauld Place and apparated to her flat, where she found Izzy munching on some crisps while cleaning the counter, which had about an inch of dust on it.

"Wotcher," said Tonks. "Early much?"

"Not home much?" Izzy asked, motioning to the mouldy food in her friend's refrigerator. Izzy had been Tonks's favourite roommate at Hogwarts. She was the smart chick that turned in essays a week early, the prefect that often bailed Tonks, Charlie, and Bill out of trouble, even though she was probably the biggest trouble maker out of all of them.

"Hey, what'd you do to your hair?" Tonks asked, noticing that the tips of Izzy's wavy white-blonde hair were now teal to match her eyes. "Did you put that Muggle stuff in it—hair kill, or whatever it's called?"

"Hair dye," Izzy corrected, rolling her eyes. "And yes, I did, but don't change the subject. Where have you been?"

"Visiting family," Tonks answered truthfully.

"Really? I thought your parents were crack heads." Izzy was now vanishing the contents of the fridge, which caused the light bulb inside of it to flicker from the use of magic.

"Izzy! That's not nice!" Tonks scolded, stealing some crisps from the bag. "And I have more family than just my parents, you know."

"Yeah, but most of them are in Azkaban. Except for Sirius Black, of course, the one that escaped... the one that you kept saying was innocent..." She turned to look at Tonks, who looked like she wanted to change the subject again. "Tonks... when was the last time you saw Sirius?"

"Um," said Tonks.

"TONKS! I don't care if you liked him as a child; he's still a mass murderer! And there are rumours that You-Know-Who is back..."

"Do you believe the rumours, then?" asked Tonks, who was shoving more crisps into her mouth.

"Stop stealing my crisps!" Izzy shouted, yanking the bag out of her friend's hand. "And as for You-Know-Who... Well, Dumbledore says he's back, and Dumbledore's always seemed smarter than Fudge to me..."

"Well, I think Dumbledore's right," Tonks said. "He's set up this organization called the Order of the Phoenix, and members know what he's up to, and we watch death eaters and stuff..."

"So that's why you've been with Sirius!" Izzy said. "You have to watch him because he's a death eater!"

"Well, not exactly. You see, the headquarters of the Order... is kind of at his house," Tonks informed her. Izzy dropped the bag of crisps in surprise; luckily, Tonks managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

Over the next hour Tonks explained how Sirius was really innocent, and how Peter Pettigrew was really alive. Izzy decided that she wanted to join the Order, and she sent a patronus to Dumbledore telling him so. Dumbledore replied that he'd meet with her later that evening.

"I'm so excited!" she squealed.

"The Order's not really that exciting to be honest—

"Not about that! Mittens had kittens! Would you like one?"

"Wha...?" said Tonks, amazed at how quickly her friend could change subjects. "Oh, yeah... I'd love one!"

They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about kittens and making up rude nicknames for Gwenog Jones, the arrogant captain of the Holyhead Harpies, the tem where Izzy professionally played seeker.

By the time Tonks got back to Grimmauld Place it was nearly suppertime, and Sirius was completely drunk. Thinking that this could only lead to disaster, Tonks hesitantly walked into the kitchen to deal with her cousin.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

**(A/N: Here's another chapter, because I feel guilty for being gone for a week. Please continue to review, and sorry for any errors!)**

September 10, 1995 6:03pm

"Tonksie! You're back!" Sirius slurred loudly. So loudly, in fact, that it awoke Remus, who was napping in the sitting room. He decided if Tonks really was back then he was probably not going to get any more sleep. He went down to the kitchen where Tonks, who must not have knocked over the umbrella stand on her way in, was attempting to perform a sobering up spell on a very drunk Sirius.

"Hold still, dammit!" she shouted. Sirius was doing some kind of wild dance around her, and she was spinning in circles trying to cast the spell. Inevitably, she fell down, landing on her arse.

"Are you alright?" asked Remus, walking over to her and helping her up.

"Yes, thanks," said Tonks, blushing. "He's hopeless, isn't he?"

"Pretty much," replied Remus, pulling up a chair to the counter with difficulty.

"Oh, damn, it was full moon last night," said Tonks, rushing to help him. "I forgot."

"I'm fine," he assured her, although his muscles were aching terribly.

"Really?" She clearly didn't believe him, as she went over to the cupboard and, after a few seconds of searching, pulled out a small bottle filled with pale blue powder. "Pain Reliever Potion. Add two spoonfuls of powder to a cup of water," she read. "Sounds easy enough."

Setting the bottle down, she went over to the sink and filled a cup of water to the brim, then returned very slowly to the counter; she was obviously trying very hard not to spill a drop. Unfortunately, Sirius bumped into her, causing the water to splash all over both of them.

"Wet T-shirt contest!" he shouted.

Tonks, of course, had chosen that day to wear a lightly coloured tank top, and Remus had a very hard time not glancing down as he cast a drying spell.

"Who won, Moony?" asked Sirius.

"I wasn't looking," Remus told him.

"Moony! Why weren't you looking?" His drunken friend was now swaying slightly. "Don't you like boobies? Are you _gay_, Moony?"

"No, Sirius, I'm not gay," replied an exasperated Remus.

"What you're not?" said Tonks. "I thought that you were."

"What?" he exclaimed.

"Sorry, sorry. I shouldn't have made that assumption. "Tonks was now blushing.

"I didn't look because I try to be a gentleman," Remus told her.

"I appreciate that, but you like sweaters and chocolate and tea..." Tonks said, her face growing redder by the second. By this time Remus was blushing as well, not used to discussing his sexuality so casually, or, for that matter, at all. "Aw, you look so sad now. Would you like a hug?"

"Is hugging a woman supposed to prove that I'm not gay?" Remus asked.

Tonks laughed, giving him a hug without answering. Remus hesitantly returned the hug, loosely at first, but then holding her tightly. Her perfume smelled rather sexy, but if he mentioned this she'd probably take it as creepy, although she wouldn't think that he was gay anymore.

"I want to be part of the hugging group, too," said Sirius., who appeared less than an inch from Remus's face.

"Aghh!" Remus said, startled.

"Is this awkward, Moony?" Sirius asked, burping loudly.

"I'm leaving now," Tonks told them, crossing the kitchen to mix Remus's potion.

"Thank you, Nymphadora," he said.

"Don't call me that," Replied Tonks, scowling.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

**(A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews! Pease continue to give me feedback about the story, and sorry for any errors.)**

October 7, 1995

"I got news!" Mundungus shouted in the hallway of Grimmauld Place. This resulted in Mrs. Black going off again and Tonks, Sirius, and Mrs. Weasley rushing downstairs.

"What?" asked Sirius irritably after closing the curtains around his mother.

"It's about Harry," Mundungus said excitedly. "He's started this group to teach the kids how to defend themselves, since Dumb Bitch won't. I overheard them in the Hogs Head... "

"Wait, I thought you got banned from the Hogs Head twenty years ago, for that incident involving a clown, three frogs, and nudity," said Sirius.

"I dressed as a witch," Mundungus told him, and Sirius and Tonks burst out laughing.

"And who, exactly, is in this group? And Umbridge is okay with it?" asked Molly, glaring at Mundungus; she still strongly disliked him for not guarding Harry responsibly.

"Well, she's banned all groups, but they've decided to do it anyway, I think. Harry, Hermione, and Ron are in it, obviously. As well as—"

"No!" Molly shouted, cutting him off. "On no account whatsoever are they to take part in an illegal secret Defence Against the Dark Arts group! They'll be expelled for sure and their future will be ruined; there will be plenty of time to learn how to defend themselves! They're way too young to be worrying about that right now!"

"You can't boss Harry and Hermione around!" Sirius said angrily.

Molly glared at him for a moment, clearly still considering Sirius to be an irresponsible guardian and Harry to be her adopted son. "Fine. But I shall send a letter to Ron, as well as Ginny and the twins—"

"All letters are being checked," Tonks interrupted.

"I could use Floo powder to go to the Gryffindor common room fireplace," suggested Sirius.

"No!" Molly shouted.

"Well you can't do it, you've got guard duty." Sirius reminded her. "Tonks has to work tonight and Moony has the full moon tomorrow. I did it a few weeks ago and it worked out fine."

"Speaking of going to work, I should probably leave now," Tonks told them. She headed for the door as Molly reluctantly agreed to let Sirius Floo Harry.

A few hours after debating with her co-workers about where Sirius Black could be hiding, a letter written on pink paper flew into the auror office.

"Sirius Black found in Gryffindor common room fire," Dawlish read aloud. "Nearly managed to grab him..."

Sirius had gotten caught. Tonks wasn't even listening to the rest of the letter; her heart was beating quickly at the thought of her cousin going back to Azkaban.

"Signed, Delores Umbridge," Dawlish finished.

"So she definitely thinks Black is in London, then?" Kingsley questioned.

"Yes," Dawlish replied. "She also believes he is in contact with his godson, Harry Potter. As I'm sure you'll remember, Lucius Malfoy reported he'd seen Black at Kings Cross station last month, as well... that's a rather lot of clues that he's here, isn't it, Shacklebolt?"

"There are also a lot of clues that Black is hiding in Tibet, but perhaps he is going back and forth. For now, I want you to search every inch of London. Get to it!" Kingsley commanded.

Six hours later, an exhausted Tonks fell into her bed at Grimmauld Place, too tired to even yell at her cousin for being so careless. But still, it wasn't really his fault; how was he to know that Dumb Bitch would understand his letter? And it wasn't like he'd been out and about, thank Merlin, as the aurors had indeed searched all over London, coming up with nothing.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

**(A/N: Happy birthday, Harry! It's July 31! Please continue to review, and sorry for any errors. )**

October 15, 1995 6:12pm

"...and if you want to stay the night you'll have to share this room over here with me," Tonks was saying. Remus, who was walking down the stairs at this time overheard this with his super-sensitive ears; one perk of being a werewolf. When he reached the first floor he found Tonks talking to a witch who had the tips of her hair coloured turquoise. Seeing him looking at her, the woman waved.

"Wotcher, Remus!" Tonks said turning around. "Come over here and meet my friend, Izzy."

"Hello, Izzy," said Remus, walking over to shake her hand. "I'm Remus."

"Yeah, I know. Tonks has been telling me stories about the marauders ever since we started Hogwarts," Izzy said, smiling.

"Then you know that I'm a...um..."

"Werewolf, yeah," Izzy finished. "It's terrible unfair how people like you are treated..."

Remus relaxed, glad to know that the newest member of the Order had no problem with his condition.

"He's completely harmless except for on full moon," said Tonks, hugging him. She'd been doing that a lot lately; she seemed to find making him blush and stutter hilarious. She didn't realize that most people did not find him harmless, and therefore he was not used to hugs at all. In fact, having her small, warm body pressed tightly against his so often had resulted in him having a bit of a crush on her; it was as if a small candle had been lit in his chest, but he was doing everything he could to smother it. A werewolf having such feelings for anyone was pointless, especially for a young, bright witch like Tonks.

"C'mon, Sirius is downstairs, probably drinking," Tonks told Izzy. The three of them went down to the kitchen where Sirius, surprisingly, was not drinking, but standing near the stove with Kingsley, who seemed to be teaching him how to cook.

"He's hot," whispered Izzy loudly.

Sirius turned around, a juicy looking steak on the plate he was holding. "Hey," he said, smiling at her. "Who are you?"

"Izzy," said Izzy. "I just joined the Order."

"Would you like some steak?" asked Sirius, who was clearly trying to impress her with his newly found cooking skills.

"Sure," Izzy said, sitting down at the counter on the chair Sirius pulled out for her.

"So, um... what do you do for a living?" he asked.

"I play Quidditch for the Holy head Harpies," Izzy said. "But I also like music. I was in a band with Tonks, Charlie, and Bill when I was at Hogwarts."

"Wow," Sirius said. "I used to sing a lot, but then in Azkaban I got out of practice... my beautiful voice seemed to attract dementors.

Remus raised an eyebrow; this was the first time he'd heard of his friend doing anything musical.

"Here's a knife and a fork, since Sirius is too busy flirting with you to be bothered giving you silverware," said Kingsley, rolling his eyes.

"Thanks," Izzy said.

Remus, who had seen Sirius trying to get with dozens of girls before, found this uninteresting and decided he'd much rather be reading his book than staying in the kitchen. He grabbed a plate of raw steak and went up to the sitting room. Tonks followed him with her own plate of fully cooked steak.

"You probably don't want to be here," he told her.

"Why not? I have no problem with watching you eat raw meat," she said.

Remus just sighed.

Over the next two weeks Remus accidentally walked in on Sirius and Izzy passionately making out five times, and walked in on them going a bit further than that twice.

"I can't take it anymore!" he complained to Tonks one evening in early November. "I'm glad Sirius is happy, but I don't need to see them doing that all over the place!"

"You could stay over at my flat for a while," Tonks suggested.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

**(A/N: Please continue to review! Sorry for any errors. )**

November 1, 1995 6:32pm

"What?" asked Remus, appalled.

"Come stay at my flat," Tonks repeated. "Come on, I've had guys sleep over there all the time."

Remus raised his eyebrows.

"Not like that!" Tonks snapped. "Just friends like Charlie and Bill Weasley who needed a place to stay."

"NO! It's extremely inappropriate," Remus said.

"Come on, do you really want to stay here?" asked Tonks. Proving her point, Sirius and Izzy chose that moment to come through the door.

"Moony, Tonksie, could you guys leave? We want to try something involving that sofa and a piano," said Sirius.

"Argh! Fine, I'll go, I'll go!" Remus shouted.

"Thanks!" called Izzy as Remus and Tonks left the room.

"I guess I'll go get my stuff, then," said Remus as he started to walk up the stairs. Tonks smiled at him cheekily, knowing that she had won.

Tonks's flat was a mess. She hadn't been there since she'd invited Izzy over, and there was more dust and some mould. Remus, who she had considered to be somewhat of a neat freak, looked absolutely astonished.

"Sorry about the state of this place," Tonks told him.

"That's alright. I'll help you clean," he replied.

Thirty minutes later Tonks's flat was sparkling with cleanliness, mostly thanks to Remus, who was very good at tidying up charms.

"Thanks," Tonks told him when they were finished and sitting on the newly cleaned sofa. "What would you like for supper tonight? I can't cook, but we could order some food."

"What kind of food?" Remus asked. He was still slightly nervous about being over at a witch's home.

"Chinese, pizza, whatever you want," Tonks replied.

In the end they ordered pizza, which they ate on the couth while watching muggle TV. A show was on about some Muggle chef who called himself the cake boss, and it made Remus very hungry for cake. Tonks noticed this, and decided that they should go to the Muggle super market to buy some.

"I didn't mean that we should actually go—" he started.

"We are going to buy cake," said Tonks, cutting him off. She was determined that he have the best time possible during his stay at her flat.

At the Muggle supermarket there were dozens of cakes to choose from; they eventually decided on a chocolate cake with fudge flavoured icing. On the way out Tonks stopped by a vending machine that sold a variety of small plastic toys.

"It's an alien, see? And it's squishy," she told him.

"How nice," Remus said. _She's so cute, _he thought to himself. There were moments like this, when Tonks acted like the little girl he used to babysit, that made him feel even guiltier about falling for her; she seemed so innocent.

After they got back to her flat and some cake it was nearly eleven o'clock, and Remus was very tired, even with the full moon a week away.

"You can sleep in my bed, and I'll sleep on the sofa," Tonks told him.

"No, you can sleep in your bed, and I'll sleep on the sofa," Remus argued.

"Whatever," sighed Tonks, giving in. "The bathroom is down that hallway, I already put some towels near the sink for your shower."

After Remus was done with his shower, and in the process of putting on his pyjamas, Tonks walked in the bathroom.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, realizing that he wasn't done getting dressed yet. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, I thought you'd be done by now." She quickly left the bathroom, smirking to herself. She had forgotten to knock on purpose, and she'd been rewarded with a glimpse of Remus's bare chest, which, although covered on scars, was very nicely tanned. "And he has a six pack, too," she whispered to herself.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

**(A/N: I'm terribly sorry for the delay! I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update because school is starting soon.)**

November 2, 1995 5:30am

_Beep. Beep. Beep. _

"What the hell?" mumbled Remus, opening his eyes. "Aghh! Where am I? Oh yeah, Tonks invited me to spend the night at her place..."

"Wotcher, Remus!" said Tonks, yawning. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"Breakfast? It's the middle of the night!" he exclaimed.

"It's half past five in the morning, and I have to go to work," Tonks informed him. "Anyway, you might be better off making your own breakfast; Sirius insists that when I was four I managed to catch a bowl of cereal on fire. So you can go back to sleep, and when you get up you can take whatever is in the cabinets, which isn't much. Be sure to lock the door when you leave."

The next time Remus awoke it was around eight o'clock, a much better time to be eating breakfast. Unfortunately, Tonks had been right; there was hardly anything in the cabinets. Remus discovered a bag of crisps, a mouldy, half eaten sandwich, and... was that a sofa cushion?

He took the bag of crisps and decided to explore Tonks's flat. Okay, so maybe he was invading her privacy, but he was curious and Tonks _had_ invited him over. He opened the door to her bedroom and was momentarily paralyzed. It was by far the messiest room he'd ever seen, with clothes and electrical cords all over the place.

"Wait, cords?" Remus said to himself. The cords probably belonged to the various guitars, electric keyboards, and coffee makers in the room. Yes, coffee makers, plural. "I guess she likes her coffee."

Remus glanced at the clothes on the floor; most were neon and torn artfully. He was so busy wondering why anybody would want their clothes practically falling apart that he wasn't really paying attention to where he was going, so he tripped on one of the cords and landed face fist into a pile of lacy neon bras. Deciding that he'd had enough of exploring, he went back into the living room and ate the rest of the crisps.

He returned to Grimmauld Place shortly after that to find that Izzy had gone to Quidditch practice.

"Moony!" Sirius said. "You're back! What did you do, sleep over at Tonksie's place?"

"Yeah. On her sofa," replied Remus, vaguely aware that Sirius was probably going to tease him for this.

"What, were you too shy to sleep in her bed with her?" asked Sirius, who was grinning mischievously.

"It's called being a gentleman, you git," Remus snapped.

"You fancy her, Moony," said Sirius.

"What? No I don't! Don't you have any idea how annoying you and Izzy are being right now? I had no choice but to go to her place when she invited me!" said Remus, trying to defend himself. After all, if Sirius discovered how he felt about Tonks he would never get another peaceful moment.

"You've liked her for ages," Sirius said, an evil smile plastered to his face. "You always blush and stutter when she hugs you."

"That's because she sneaks up on me! She finds it funny!"

"Ha! You expect me to believe that she actually manages to take you by surprise? She's so clumsy you can hear her coming, and you're always looking at her too!" Sirius shouted.

Remus just stood there feeling his face getting redder and redder.

"See, you're blushing now, just thinking about her! She likes you too, Moony. You should go ahead and shag her, then maybe you won't be so jealous of me and Izzy," Sirius told him.

"Okay, first of all, I am not jealous of you and Izzy. Second of all, if I did fancy your cousin, I would not try to start a relationship with her, because I am a werewolf! I am too old, poor, and dangerous for someone like her!" said Remus. "Now leave me alone, and never mention this again!"

"Moony..."

"What?!"

"She also thinks you have a cute arse."


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

**(A/N: )**

November 20, 1995 9:24am

Tonks knew that she should get up; true, it was her day off, but she still had things to do. Charlie would be coming over soon to bring Cuddles to his new home. Sirius was extremely upset by this, but Charlie insisted that dragons had to have miles and miles of space to be healthy and happy.

"Cuddles is just fine where he is!" Sirius had whined when Tonks told him what Charlie had said.

"He's locked up in this grim, old, place," Tonks argued. "Just like you. You keep complaining about how you hate being locked up; how do you think the dragon feels about it?"

"If Cuddles gets to go outside, then I want to as well," he shouted.

"Cuddles isn't an Azkaban escapee..."

Sirius had ran out of the room, sobbing. Tonks felt kind of guilty about it, but if Sirius got sent back to Azkaban... well...

Deciding that she needed to think more cheerful thoughts, Tonks picked up the painting that Remus had given her a few months ago. He was so talented, but he didn't seem to know it. Yes, so talented, so polite, so... sexy. She thought back to when she'd opened the bathroom door to find him shirtless. He'd seemed embarrassed about it then, but it had definitely been worth it. All the same, he probably just thought of her as some clumsy, immature, little girl. He would never even consider being in a relationship with her...

Meanwhile, Sirius was in Cuddles room, gently stroking the dragon's snout. Cuddles seemed to understand that he was leaving, and that his master was upset about it. He tried to comfort his master by nuzzling his cheek, but only succeeded in setting his hair on fire.

"Stupid Moony. Stupid Tonksie," he muttered (after putting out his flaming hair). "Why won't they let me out? I'll be careful. They're being so mean right now that perhaps I shouldn't help them... oh, of course I'll help them, after all they are two of my favourite people in the world... "

Unfortunately, Sirius's idea of 'helping' someone often involved much embarrassment and sometimes serious injuries for the people he was trying to 'help'.

"They'll never get together on their own of course; Moony is far too shy and often oblivious, and Tonksie... well, she's just Tonksie," Sirius said to himself. Cuddles watched him curiously. "What shall I do, I wonder? Hmm... Christmas is coming up; maybe I can think of something involving mistletoe. Maybe mistletoe that traps people under it until they kiss? Yes, that would work; I'd just have to make sure to get both of them under it at the same time..."

"Sirius! Charlie's here!" Remus called.

"Dammit! Come on, then, Cuddles, we're going to bring you to your new home. You'll probably be happier there anyway. Maybe I'll come and visit you sometime," said Sirius sadly. "I'm going to miss you."

Charlie was waiting downstairs with Remus and Tonks, who was still in her pyjamas.

"Hello, Sirius," he said. "What we're going to do is simply put a disillusionment charm on both me and the dragon, then fly back to Romania."

"Isn't Romania a bit far to fly to?" asked Sirius.

"We're probably going to camp along the way," Charlie explained. "It'll be fun, and Cuddles will be so much happier in his new home."

"Well... bye, then Cuddles," Sirius mumbled, as Charlie disillusioned both of them and walked out the door.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've had a busy past few days, which involved a mean cat that I am forced to share an apartment with and nine hours on a train with no laptop. )**

December 8, 1995 5:26am

Tonks didn't like rain. It was cold and dreary, and this morning it was mixed with thunder. She was in the sitting room of Grimmauld Place doing paperwork. It was very boring and she was nearly falling asleep. The sun wasn't up yet, but she had a feeling that even when it did come up it would still be dark as night outside.

A few hours later the front door opened, and someone noisily came inside. Tonks's first thought was that maybe Mundungus had showed up drunk, as it sounded like the person had collapsed on the floor. She went out to the hallway, prepared to shout at him, but instead she found Remus, laying on the floor and covered in blood.

"Remus!" she said. "It was full moon last night… I forgot, and Sirius will be hungover when I wake him, so I suppose I'll patch you up…"

"No," Remus whispered. "I'm fine, just leave me here."

"Don't be daft," she argued. "You're bleeding, badly… sweet Merlin, what did you do to your head?!"

"I hit it on something…"

Tonks rushed over to him and helped him up. "Come on, lean on me, I'm stronger than I look, you know."

"I'm fine, Nymphadora," insisted Remus as they started going up the stairs.

"Shut up, Remus. And Don't call me Nymphadora!" said Tonks. She managed to half carry, half drag him all the way into his bedroom. He was dangerously pale, and the back of his head was still bleeding. She fixed that with her wand and then helped him onto the bed.

"I'm fine," Remus repeated. "And besides, the scars… Please, I don't want you to see…"

"Sure, whatever you say," Tonks replied. She vanished all, of his clothes but quickly conjured a blanket to cover him.

"NYMPHADORA!" he shouted. "You just- you- "

"It would be pretty hard to help you if I can't see the wounds," Tonks sighed. "Now would you please stop being so stubborn? " Without waiting for an answer, she uncovered his chest and began healing the deep claw marks that covered his nicely toned skin. "You didn't have wolfsbane, huh?" she asked.

"No," he replied.

"I could make it for you," she offered.

"It's too hard for you," he told her. "And it requires too much effort."

"Are you implying that I'm not capable of doing hard things, or things that require effort? I am an auror, you know, but of course that doesn't require effort at all…" Tonks asked, moving on to Remus's arms, which were covered in several bite marks.

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" said Remus. "I just-"

"You just don't want me to waste time taking care of you because you think you're not worth it, even though you are," she interrupted.

Remus didn't say anything, he just looked down at his hands sadly.

Later on in the day, after Tonks had gotten back from work, she went to check on him. He was still asleep, as she'd suspected he would be. He looked quite peaceful, despite all the scars. Tonks sat down beside him, too tired to walk down to her room. Staying up all night doing boring paperwork and then going to work right after had made her exhausted.

Three hours later she was awakened by Remus, who was gently shaking her shoulder. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I, um- I wanted to check on you, you know to make sure you were alright, and I guess I must have fallen asleep," said a still tired Tonks.

"Well, it's nighttime now, so you might as well just go back to sleep," said Remus.

"Really? I can stay?" she asked.

"I suppose, even though it is rather inappropriate," he replied.

"Do your wounds still hurt?" she asked.

"No. you did a good job; you're much more gentle than Sirius.. Thank you." he said.

"Do you need water, or food, or anything?"

"I'm fine."

Ignoring this, Tonks got him a glass of water, which he drank eagerly.

"Aw, you were thirsty. Why didn't you just say so?" she asked.

Remus merely shrugged, laying back down and closing his eyes. Tonks rubbed his back for a while, then laid down beside him, snuggling closer in her sleep.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

**(A/N: )**

December 13, 1995

Sirius had taken to hanging mistletoe all around the house in preparation for Christmas. Unfortunately, this mistletoe trapped people underneath it and held them captive until they kissed. So far the victims had been Hestia and Arthur, and Emmeline and Molly. Remus had tried to convince Sirius to take the mistletoe down; what would happen if it trapped a pairing like Dumbledore and Severus? Shuddering at the thought, Remus went down to the third floor to visit Tonks. He had a sneaking suspicion that she was why Sirius was hanging all this mistletoe; he still hadn't given up on his 'Moony loves Tonksie' theory. And okay, he was right about that, but the fact remained that Remus was a werewolf, and werewolves were dangerous.

But still, Tonks was nice and a great friend, and that was why Remus was going to visit her. He knocked on the door to her room, expecting her to open it immediately, as she was off from work and was almost certainly practicing guitar. He waited a moment, but she didn't answer. Remus pressed his ear to the door, his super sensitive hearing picking up every sound; every sob. Tonks, the most cheerful person he knew, was crying.

He decided to give up on knocking and just open the door. Tonks was sprawled out on her bed, face buried in her pillow. Her hair was curly, brown and very long.

"Nymphadora," he said.

Tonks immediately went still and silent, apparently attempting to fake sleep. Remus sighed, then went to sit beside her.

Realizing that he was still there, Tonks said, "Go away. Now."

"No. What's wrong?" Remus asked.

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong, why would you say that?" she replied, her voice still muffled by the pillow.

"Let's see… maybe because there's about a dozen used tissues on your night stand and I heard you crying through the door?" he said.

Tonks didn't say anything, she just lay there, her face buried in the pillow. After a few minutes Remus gently lifted her up and put her on his lap. He held her tightly for the longest time. She was so sad, but there wasn't anything he could do. Well, actually, there was something he could do, but he wasn't sure how much it would help. _Kiss her, _he told himself. _NO! DON"T! It's inappropriate. _In the end, though, he didn't, because that would bring up the 'I've been head over heels in love with you for a while now…' conversation before the 'Why is the most cheerful and outgoing person I know crying?' conversation.

"Nymphadora…" said Remus after a few minutes. Tonks's shoulders had stopped shaking, but her face remained hidden in his chest. "Come on, sit up. What's wrong?"

Reluctantly, Tonks lifted her face. "It's nothing, really. Just go away."

"Yes, just like the full moon is nothing. I tried to get you to go away then, but you wouldn't," he reminded her.

"It's just… I don't like Christmas," she admitted.

"What? Why not?"

"Well, I used to like Christmas…. I used to love it, actually… but my family is just so screwed up, with most of my relatives in Azkaban, Death Eaters, and abusive, crack head parents…"she replied, sniffling.

"I never knew that your parents were…."

"Drug attics, yeah. Dad was ok, but Mum…. She would get kind of violent. And Uncle Lucy- I mean, Lucius Malfoy- he would beat me up a lot, too. But whenever Sirius came over, Mum would stop drinking and doing drugs, and it was like… it was like a proper family," said Tonks, her voice shaking. "But after he got sent to Azkaban, she came up with the idea that all Blacks were evil, and that included herself and me. So she made Christmas horrible, because it represented family for us."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" whispered Remus.

"I- I didn't want-"

"To bother me, yes. I never thought that you, of all people, would have a secret that big. I mean you're so happy, all the time. But I guess you're just a good actress, huh?" he asked.

"I'm not fake, you know. When I'm feeling sad I act happy, that's all. You know, for the benefit of other people," she said. "I guess we're alike; you do that too, I've noticed. "

"And it's the same situation for both of us," said Remus. "I don't fit in with werewolves because I associate with wizards, and I don't fit in with wizards because I'm a werewolf. You don't with in with normal wizards because your family is evil, and you don't fit in with your family because you're nice."

"I'm not that nice all the time, believe me," she replied.

"Are you really happy now, or are you just acting?" asked Remus.

"I guess I'm all right now," Tonks replied. "Thanks."

"It'll be better this year," he told her. "You'll have Sirius and the Weasleys, and the rest of the Order. On a totally unrelated note, is this your real hair?"

"Wha…? Oh, yeah. I'm not morphed right now," she said.

"Can I draw you?" he asked. "Please?"

"Why would you want to?" Tonks asked.

"Because you're beautiful," Remus replied, realizing that he'd said this aloud only after Tonks had broken eye contact with him. She stared at her lap, blushing. "Thanks."

"So… You'll let me?"

"I suppose."

A few hours later, Remus had completed a pencil drawing of Tonks. This had resulted in him being even more in love with her, as he had studied every detail of her face for such a long time.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay!)**

December 18, 1995 2:03am

"Attack! There's been an attack!" yelled a voice in 12, Grimmauld Place early in the morning.

"Wha...?" mumbled Tonks, who had been fast asleep before being rudely awakened by the voice, which sounded as if it were coming from the second floor. Reluctantly, she got up to see what was going on, and immediately walked into the wall.

Meanwhile, Sirius, who had also heard the voice and was worried about Harry, was rushing down the stairs; he had been drinking in the attic with Buckbeak. He hurried into the room where Harry and Ron had stayed during the summer to find Phineas Nigellus screaming his head off.

"Well, if it isn't my great, great, great—"

"What happened?! Who's hurt? Harry is okay, right?" Sirius interrupted.

"Such awful manners," Phineas sniffed. "Anyway, Arthur Weasly has been injured, and his wife, children, and Harry Potter are coming to stay. Now, if you don't mind, I shall be going back to bed now." And with that, he left the portrait, leaving Sirius cheering at the thought of his godson coming to stay.

Sirius rushed down to the basement kitchen at once, where Kreacher was standing, looking guilty about something.

"Back again, the blood traitors' brats. Is it true their father's dying?" he asked.

"OUT!" roared Sirius as Harry and the Weasleys appeared in the kitchen. Kreacher disappeared through the door to the hall, looking back at them malevolently as he hitched up his loincloth; Sirius hurried towards them all, slightly embarrassed that his godson was seeing him looking like a drunk.

"What's going on?" he said, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured —"

"Ask Harry," said Fred.

"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," said George.

"It was –" Harry began; "I had a - a kind of – vision..."

"Is Mum here?" said Fred, turning to Sirius after Harry had finished telling them what had happened.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," said Sirius. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now."

"We've got to go to St Mungo's," said Ginny urgently. She looked around at her brothers; they were of course still in their pyjamas. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything?"

"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St Mungo's!" said Sirius.

"Course we can go to St Mungo's if we want," said Fred, with a mulish expression. "He's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?"

"What does that matter?" said George hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" said Sirius angrily. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

Fred and George looked as though they could not care less what the Ministry made of anything. Ron was still ashen-faced and silent.

Ginny said, "Somebody else could have told us… we could have heard it somewhere other than Harry."

"Like who?" said Sirius impatiently. "Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's –"

"We don't care about the dumb Order!" shouted Fred.

"It's our dad dying we're talking about!" yelled George.

"Your father knew what he was getting into and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" said Sirius, equally angry. "This is how it is - this is why you're not in the Order - you don't understand - there are things worth dying for!"

"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" bellowed Fred. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

The little colour remaining in Sirius's face drained from it. He looked for a moment as though he would quite like to hit Fred, but when he spoke, it was in a voice of determined calm.

"I know it's hard, but we've all got to act as though we don't know anything yet. We've got to stay put, at least until we hear from your mother, all right?"

Fred and George still looked mutinous. Ginny, however, took a few steps over to the nearest chair and sank into it. Harry looked at Ron, who made a funny movement somewhere between a nod and a shrug, and they sat down too. The twins glared at Sirius for another minute, then took seats either side of Ginny.

"That's right," said Sirius encouragingly, "come on, let's all… let's all have a drink while we're waiting. _Accio Butterbeer_!"


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

**(A/N: Hey everybody! I'm going to do a prank war somewhere around April 1995. Tonks, Bill, Sirius, Remus, the twins, and possibly Charlie are going to participate. If you have any pranks you'd like me to put in the story, let me know!)**

December 20, 1995

Hermione had come to stay at Grimmauld Place, which made Ginny much happier, as she now had someone to talk to aside from her brothers and Harry. The twins had decided that it would be a good idea to test some of their inventions out on her while she was asleep, had she had gotten her revenge by using the bat-bogey hex on both of them.

Meanwhile, Tonks was busy at work pretending to look for Sirius, who, thankfully, was in a much better mood now that Harry was here. When she was at Grimmauld Place she spent her time daydreaming about Remus and playing with Bubbles. Izzy had kept her promise and given her Bubbles, who was a pure white kitten with blue eyes. She was very sweet to everyone except for Remus.

"Stupid cat," muttered Remus the first day he'd seen her. Bubbles had been taking a bubble bath, swatting the bubbles that floated by. "Cats aren't supposed to like water; this isn't normal."

"Remus! She's a nice kitty, see? Here, pet her..." But when Remus had tried to pet her, Bubbles hissed at him.

"I'm sorry, Remus. I don't know why she did that; she's usually so sweet," Tonks apologized later on that day in the library.

"That's alright, Nymphadora. II did insult her, after all," he replied.

"What are you reading?" she asked, sitting beside him.

"A book about this girl who dreams every night that she is someone else. And that someone else dreams every night that she is the girl, and she doesn't know which person she really is, and everyone thinks that she's crazy."

"That sounds confusing," Tonks told him. "Remus..."

"What?"

"Will you read to me?" she begged.

"Sure. I've only just started this book anyway, so I'll read from the beginning. Once upon a time..."

Tonks snuggled closer as he read, describing a girl who lived in a magical land, although it was obvious that the book had been written by a Muggle.

"Tonksie! Moony!" Sirius yelled, entering the library. "Look who's getting all cosy by the fire while it's snowing outside..."

"It's not like that, Sirius—"

"Sweet Merlin! It's SNOWING! Let's have a snowball fight!" shouted Tonks.

"Yay, a snowball fight!" Sirius repeated.

"What?! No! It's too cold out, you'll get sick—" Remus started, only to be cut off by Sirius putting his hand over his mouth.

"You're going to participate, Moony. We will force you!" And with that, they half carried,, half dragged Remus down the stairs, threw his cloak over him, and pushed him out the door, which locked behind him.

"It's cold, it's cold, let me back in!" he screamed.

"Professor?" said a voice behind him.

He spun around, literally spun like an ice skater (there happened to be quite a lot of ice on the spot he was standing on) and fell on his bum. "Oh, hello, Ginny. "

"Have you come to join in our snowball fight? That's great! Harry needs another player, Ron's too lazy to come out..." said Ginny.

"No, I'm not going to join in any—"

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!" screamed Tonks, as she flew out the door and landed on top of Remus. "Wotcher, Remus! Whose team are you going to be on?"

"I'm not! I'm going back inside!" he replied angrily.

"No, you're not, Moony. Molly thinks you need some fresh air," Sirius told him.

"Wait, you're not allowed to be out here! You'll be sent back to Azkaban—"

"No one can see the front yard, idiot. It's invisible, like my imaginary friend, Bob," Sirius explained.

In the end, Remus grudgingly agreed to participate in the snowball fight, which was fun. Not that he'd ever admit that to anybody, of course. But he knew that Tonks had at least guessed that he'd been enjoying himself, judging by the way she winked at him when she gave him a cup of hot chocolate.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

**(A/N: Did I say April 1995 in the last Author's Note? I did, oops. I meant 1996. Remember to give me your ideas for the Prank War! During this chapter it's probably best if you listen to Christmas music (Yes, I know that it's the middle of August). I find that it really gets you in the Christmas spirit. )**

December 24, 1995

"Do you think Arthur will be okay?" asked Tonks. She was standing next to Remus, who was sitting on the sofa in the library, reading a book.

"Probably," he replied.

"That's all you're going to say about it?" Tonks asked. She'd been trying to get him to talk for the past half hour, but he was so absorbed in his book that she wondered if he was even listening to her.

"He was fine in St. Mungo's a few days ago, wasn't he?" Okay, so maybe he _was_ listening to her. Maybe the reason he wasn't saying much was because he was still mad at Bubbles, who had scratched him the day before. Tonks was determined to make up for this, although being around him was rather awkward for her, even though she didn't show it. She was embarrassed that he had seen her weak and bawling her eyes out about her past; she usually didn't let people see that side of her, but this was Remus, and she was head over heels in love with him, so she should trust him... right?

"Remus..."

"What is it, Nympahdora?"

"Don't call me that!" snapped Tonks. Merlin, how was it that he could make a name like Nymhadora sound so pretty when he said it? "You do realize that it's almost Christmas and you're just sitting here reading? We should at least decorate the library or something!"

"The library doesn't need to be decorated. Hardly anyone comes in here," he told her.

"We do. Hermione and Sirius do. Please, Remus?" she pleaded, giving him her best puppy dog face.

"Oh... alright. What shall we do?" he asked, putting his book down.

"Yay! Thank you, Remus!" she squealed, hugging him tightly. "We should put up lights, lots of them, everywhere!"

"Okay. Let's do that then..."

"Let's listen to Christmas music while we decorate. It'll help us get into the Christmas spirit," said Tonks, getting out The Cube and selecting a Christmas song.

"Are you implying that I don't have any Christmas spirit?" Remus asked.

"Nooo..." replied Tonks, conjuring Christmas lights on top of the nearest bookcase.

Over the next half an hour they decorated every single bookcase in the library with lights, tinsel, and little floating kittens wearing red and green bows.

"There's nothing Christmas-y about kittens! Nothing!" argued Remus.

"There is so," Tonks retorted, waving her wand. Now there appeared to be fluffy white snowflakes falling onto the bookcases. The song on the cube changed to a slow song.

"Oh, I like this song," Remus commented. "Would you... would you like to dance?"

"What, me? Dance? Only if you want your feet stepped on about every five seconds," replied Tonks.

"I'm sure I could handle it," Remus told her, chuckling. He hesitantly put his hands on either side of her waist and began to sway to the music. "It's not hard, see?"

For Tonks though, it was hard. She stepped on his toes seven times within the first minute, and managed to knock him over twice. He didn't get mad at her, though; in fact, he seemed to find it amusing. Or at least, until Tonks tripped on part of the rug and both of them fell... directly under a bunch of mistletoe that Sirius had hung.

"Damn him, Sirius! I thought there wasn't any up here!" Remus growled.

"So we're trapped here. Great," muttered Tonks.

"Until we kiss," Remus told her.

"Wait... WHAT?" she shouted.

"Thanks. I guess the thought of snogging an old werewolf like me is just terrible," he said, obviously disappointed.

"No, I didn't mean—" she stopped, as he was cupping her face in his hands, and soon their mouths were pressed together giving in to what they had both felt for so long.

"Well, well, well... look who's been caught French kissing under the mistletoe..." said Sirius, interrupting the moment. "You two have got some explaining to do..."


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

**(A/N: Again, listen to Christmas music while reading this!)**

December 24, 1995

"All this time you two were claiming that you didn't fancy each other, and now look!" Sirius continued.

"I—um, well, you see-"Remus started.

"Your stupid mistletoe TRAPPED US!" shouted Tonks. "What the hell were we supposed to do; just sit there singing Christmas songs?"

"You didn't have to go the extra mile and passionately make out," Sirius informed her. "Now, as I expect you two would like to continue snogging, I shall leave. But be aware that I will never stop teasing you about this for the rest of my life." And with that, he left the room.

"Well that was bloody embarrassing," commented Tonks, who didn't sound embarrassed at all. Remus, on the other hand, was currently the shade of Ginny's hair.

"He was right though. We didn't really have to...go that far. It was rather inappropriate," he said.

"Oh come off it, Remus. I enjoyed it, and I know that you did too," Tonks chided. "Admit it."

'Whatever my feelings for you, Nymphadora, I am a werewolf, and werewolves are dangerous," he told her, being careful not to make eye contact. "Not to mention I'm also poor, and old. Being in a relationship with me would make you an outcast to the majority of the wizarding world."

"Like I care about being an outcast," she scoffed. "Look at my family; their death eaters, for Merlin's sake! As for old and poor—how shallow do you think I am?"

"You have to admit that I'm dangerous, though," Remus insisted. "What would happen if I kill you? Or, god forbid, bite you? I would never forgive myself."

"How is being in a relationship with me going it make it more likely that you bite me? It's not like I'm going to be around you during full moon, and if I am, you'll have wolfsbane, and if you don't, which is very, very unlikely, I _am_ an auror, and I'll defend myself."

Remus was now frustrated that she didn't seem to understand what a serious condition lycanthropy was. But then, suddenly, his frustrations went away. Tonks was arguing with him about starting a relationship, which meant...no. It was too good to be true. Did Tonks...fancy him? She must to be saying such things.

"Look, Remus, I know it's a really serious thing, being a werewolf, nut I'm not exactly new to the subject. At work sometimes dark wizards collaborate with them and then I'm called in to fight them. And I know you think that I'm just a silly, immature little girl, but—"

"No." He raised his eyes to meet hers for the first time since they'd kissed. "I don't think that. And I really want to be with you, but—"

But he was cut off by Tonks pressing her lips to his, willingly this time. He forgot everything that he had been trying to say, and surrendered to her tongue slipping into his mouth.

"MOONY! What are you doing, snogging my little cousin? Again?" Sirius interrupted.

"Do you really make it a point to but in every time?" Remus snapped. "I thought you'd been trying to get us together for weeks!"

"So..." said Sirius, grinning mischievously. "You two are together, then?"

"Obviously."

"Yay! I did it!" he screamed. "I DID IT! Oh, and when you two are done snogging, Molly said that you're to come downstairs and stuff your faces full of biscuits. Bye!"

"Mmm, biscuits," said Tonks.

"Would you like to go downstairs then?" Remus asked.

"No, I've got better things to do..."

Finally, as it was getting dark outside, they decided that maybe some biscuits wouldn't be a bad thing. They were mostly cold, but neither of them minded much.

"Oh, hello, you two," said Molly, upon entering the kitchen. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen either of you for hours."

"Oh, you know. Keeping Sirius happy," Tonks replied. "Nice biscuits, Molly."

"Thank you, dear. Have you got all of your Christmas shopping done?" she asked, going over to the stove and putting something in the oven.

"Thankfully, yes," she said.

They babbled for a while, about food and presents and 'that horrible old house elf'. But eventually Remus decided that he was tired and announced that he was going to bed.

"Me too," Tonks chimed in, yawning.

"Nymphadora..." he said when they reached the first floor.

"Mmm?"

"I was wondering if uh... I mean, not in the way that you'd think, but—"

"Are you trying to ask me if you can spend the night with me? Remus, don't you think that's a bit inappropriate?" Her eyes glittered mischievously; she was making fun of him.

"Not like that, though! Just to—"

"Cuddle?" Tonks finished. "Of course you can."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay! )**

December 25, 1995

"Remus... wake up..."

"Hm."

"Remus, wake up... its Christmas... REMUS, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, GET YOUR LAZY ARSE OUT OF BED AND OPEN YOUR PRESENTS!"

"Agh!" Remus yelled, nit used to being woken up at six in the morning, especially not by a witch, and never in a witch's bed.

"Come on, sleepyhead," Tonks was saying. Her hair was bright red this morning, in celebration of Christmas. At the end of her bed was a huge pile of presents; both hers and Remus's.

"Wha-? Why are mine here too?" he asked.

"I guess Father Christmas must have known that we got together," Tonks replied, already ripping the wrapping paper off of her gifts.

"Father Christmas isn't real, Nymphadora. Hey, wait a minute... didn't I overhear Molly saying that she puts them there, since Kreacher won't do it?"

There was silence as they both realized what this meant.

"Shit! She's going to KILL us! She would have seen... and it would have looked like..."

"Should we go down for breakfast? Maybe explain to her—"

"NO! We should run, we should hide! We should—"

"Come on, Nymphadora, we're going downstairs," Remus said, lifting her up and carrying her from the room.

"No, never under estimate the wrath of Molly!"

"Good morning, Tonks," Molly said through gritted teeth when they reached the kitchen. "Good morning, Remus. How did you two...sleep?"

"Um," said Tonks.

"Just fine, thank you, Molly," Remus replied.

"YOU TWO WERE IN THE SAME BED! HOW INAPPROPRIATE, WITH ALL THESE CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE!" she shouted.

"Molly, it wasn't like that—"

"HOW DARE YOU, YOU'LL RUIN THEM, JUST LIKE...just like..." she stopped speaking, and buried her face in her hands.

"Molly, it wasn't like that, honestly, don't cry... nothing happened, and neither Tonks nor I would ever do anything to 'ruin' your children," Remus told her, now that she had finally stopped screaming.

"I believe you," she sniffed. "It's just..."

"Yes?"

"It's Percy!" she wailed. "He's sent back his Christmas jumper, no note or anything!"

"What's mum yelling about now?" the twins asked, apparating nearly on top of Tonks.

"Watch it," she snapped.

"Percy!" she sobbed. "Sent back...his jumper..."

"Aw, mum, it'll be okay..."

"Yeah, Percy's nothing but a humungous of rat droppings..."

This did not seem to make Molly feel any better, and the twins apparated away, presumably to warn the other teenagers about their distressed mum.

Later on in the day, while Tonks was at work due to the large amount of people imagining they'd seen Sirius Black, and were worried about him interrupting their festivities, Remus, Molly, and Mad-Eye escorted the teenagers to go see Arthur in St. Mungo's. Mundungus had stolen—'borrowed'—a car for the occasion.

When they arrived, Arthur was propped up in bed, with the remains of a turkey dinner on a tray on his lap, and a rather sheepish expression on his face.

"Everything alright, Arthur?" Molly asked, after they'd all greeted Mr. Weasley and handed over presents.

"Fine, fine," he said, a little too heartily. "You — er — haven't seen Healer Smethwyck, have you?"

"No," said Molly suspiciously, "why?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Arthur airily, starting to unwrap his pile of gifts. "Well, everyone had a good day? What did you all get for Christmas? Oh, _Harry -_ this is absolutely wonderful!" For he had just opened Harry's gift of fuse-wire and screwdrivers.

Molly did not seem entirely satisfied with his answer. As her husband leaned over to shake Harry's hand, she peered at the bandaging under his nightshirt.

"Arthur," she said, with a snap in her voice like a mousetrap, "you've had your bandages changed. Why have you had your bandages changed a day early, Arthur? They told me they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow."

"What?" said Arthur, looking rather frightened and pulling the bed covers higher up his chest. 'No, no - it's nothing - it's -_l-"_ He seemed to deflate under his wife's piercing gaze.

"Well - now don't get upset, Molly, but Augustus Pye had an idea… he's the Trainee Healer, you know, lovely young chap and very interested in… um… complementary medicine… I mean, some of these old Muggle remedies… well, they're called stitches, Molly, and they work very well on - on Muggle wounds –"

Molly let out an ominous noise somewhere between a shriek and a snarl. Lupin strolled away from the bed and over to the werewolf, who had no visitors and was looking rather wistfully at the crowd around Arthur; Bill muttered something about getting himself a cup of tea and Fred and George leapt up to accompany him, grinning.

"Do you mean to tell me," shouted Molly, her voice growing louder with every word and apparently unaware that her fellow visitors were scurrying for cover, "that you have been messing about with Muggle remedies?"

"Not messing about, Molly, dear," said Mr Weasley imploringly, "it was just - just something Pye and I thought we'd try - only, most unfortunately — well, with these particular kinds of wounds - it doesn't seem to work as well as we'd hoped –"

_"Meaning?"_

"Well…well, I don't know whether you know what - what stitches are?"

"It sounds as though you've been trying to sew your skin back together," said Molly with a snort of mirthless laughter, "but even you, Arthur, wouldn't be _that_ stupid —"

"I fancy a cup of tea, too," said Harry, jumping to his feet.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THAT'S THE GENERAL IDEA?"

"Hello," said Remus to the newly bitten werewolf over the screams of Molly. "I'm Remus Lupin... I heard about your condition, and—"

"You wouldn't want to come any closer, then," mumbled the werewolf sadly. "I've been... cursed..."

"Well, so have I. For nearly thirty years, actually..."

By the end of the visit he'd learned the werewolf's name (Andrew) and that he was absolutely terrified of himself now, even more than the average person was. His girlfriend had left him, his parents had disowned him, and he had lost his job. In addition to that, now he had to deal with the torture of the monthly transformations.

"Well, there's this thing, called wolfsbane..."

"Remus, are you coming?"

"And it helps you keep your human mind..."

"Remus! Hurry. Up."

"But it tastes bloody awful..."

"REMUS!"


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

**(A/N: )**

December 26, 1995 10:30pm

"So, Remus... what'd you get for Christmas?" asked Tonks. They were in the library, and Remus was trying to read. This was rather difficult, considering Tonks was combing his hair through her fingers, and distracting him greatly by just being there.

"Somebody gave me a beautiful set of new coloured pencils," he told her, deciding to give up on his book, which was less interesting than Tonks anyway. "I wonder who that could have been..."

Tonks grinned cheekily. "I thought you'd like that. And let's see... that slutty lingerie you got me was quite nice as well...

"What...?!" exclaimed Remus, after he was done choking on air. "I got you pair of fluffy bunny slippers." The bunny slippers had been Sirius's idea; considering that he was paying for everybody's gifts, and all Remus was doing was going out to get them, he found it appropriate to go with the items Sirius wanted to give. Well, actually, the bunny slippers had been his second choice for Tonks... the first was... well...

"Yes, Bubbles enjoys chewing on those greatly." Tonks said absently. "It sure is dark out, isn't it? No stars... I guess the clouds cover them up. We're going to have one hell of a snowstorm tonight."

"Hm." Remus was tired, and not really listening to what she was saying.

"Are you sleepy?" Tonks cooed.

"Must you talk to me like I am a kitten?" snapped Remus.

"Yes, I must," Tonks replied. Must you be so adorable when you're sleepy, just like a kitten?" She stopped messing up his hair and flopped down on the sofa next to him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Sitting here, what does it look like?" she said.

"Hm."

"Do you have a problem with that, Remus? Is there anything that you would, perhaps, like me to do instead?" She smiled at him cheekily (it was so annoying when she did that) and moved a bit closer to him. Knowing what she was going to do next, Remus stared at here intently. Unfortunately, a loud bang, presumably from the twins' room, made him blink, and when he opened his eyes, Tonks was a bit closer... a bit closer... until she was literally right on top of him, kissing the tip of his nose.

"Moony..."

"Honestly, Sirius, do you have some sort of weird powers that help you detect exactly when to interrupt us?" Tonks shouted.

Sirius just grinned, the same annoyingly cheeky grin that Tonks always had. "In case you two have forgotten, the order meeting is about to start. So you should probably stop snogging, and come back downstairs..."

"The Malfoys have recently put up better security around their house," Dumbledore said. "This might mean that they are aware of the few times we have spied on them, using the ingenious invention of extendable ears; We have learned valuable information from this, such as the fact that the death eaters are planning some sort of attack, and that it is unlikely they will attempt to have Voldemort steal the prophecy; he may be able to do it, but he won't risk it. We should still continue to guard it, just in case, however..."

"Such a boring meeting." Tonks complained after it was over.

"Be thankful that it was boring," Remus told her. "It means nothing is happening, and you're less likely to die."

"Hm," Tonks mumbled, hugging him tightly.

"You didn't hear a word I just said, did you?" he asked.

"Not really," she murmured. It was quite late by then , and she was practically falling asleep.


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

**(A/N: )**

December 31, 1995

"Happy New Years Eve, Sirius!" Tonks shouted across the kitchen at her cousin.

"Hmph, replied Sirius. His jolly Christmas spirit had gradually been decreasing as he realized that the holidays wouldn't last forever, and soon Harry would go back to school.

"Oh, come off it. You've got till Wednesday," Tonks reminded him.

"Wednesday. What kind of day is that to go back? They'd have to start term on Thursday, when the week is almost over! Would it really hurt that much to give them a few more days off?" he muttered. "Honestly."

"I'm sorry, Sirius," said Tonks, knowing that nothing she could say would prevent what happened next.

"Stupid! Merlin, it's just so stupid! Me not being allowed out, the stupid Ministry not doing anything—WHY IS THE WORLD SO UNHELPFUL?! And furthermore, why is Harry not allowed to spend more time with his handsome, wonderful, adoring—"

"Is he at it _again_?" Remus asked, walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah," replied Tonks.

"—intelligent, amazing, beautiful,-"

"Not arrogant one bit, is he?"

"—fabulous, witty, funny, extraordinary godfather?" he finished. "I mean, I'm so awesome that-

"Shall we go upstairs?" asked Remus, who was getting very tired of his friend's conceited way of thinking.

"—idiotic, mentally retarded, hell of a Ministry should go shove their—"

"Sure," said Tonks.

Up in the library, they continued with what was now a daily routine of together time, with the doors locked, and the locks magically reinforced. The way this usually went was Remus started off reading a book to Tonks, but eventually they both got distracted, and the book was cast aside.

"It snowing," murmured Tonks, as Remus lifted her onto his lap.

"It's been snowing, haven't you noticed? We've been in a huge blizzard for the past few days," he informed her.

"Really?" asked Tonks. She'd been blissfully ignorant to the weather recently as the Ministry had given her some days off in exchange for forcing her to work on Christmas.

"Mm," was all he said, as was rather busy kissing along her jaw, gradually making his way to her mouth.

"Mew."

"Wha...? Oh—Bubbles!"

"How is it I am always interrupted?" Remus muttered.

"Oh, but Remus... she's such a cute kitty, just look at her face," Tonks said. Bubbles hissed at Remus, which annoyed him nearly as much as the fact that she sometimes got more attention than he did.

"Bubbles! Bad kitty, don't hiss at Remus," Tonks cooed.

"Stop talking to it like it's an innocent little child," Remus told her. "She's truly evil."

"Well, to you maybe, but only because you're so mean—" she was cut off by a noise that sounded as if a heard of buffalo was running down the stairs. "What the...?"

The two of them apparated downstairs to find Arthur, back from St. Mungos and standing in the kitchen. Although Molly could be... well... kind of aggressive sometimes, it was obvious that he'd missed her cooking. "... Terrible stuff they had in the hospital, looked like dirt and didn't taste much better..." he said between mouthfuls.

"Oh, Arthur, you're back just in time for New Years..."

"Dad, Fred and George keep trying their experiments on me... go tell them off..."

Later on that evening, as it was beginning to get dark, Sirius came in to the library, his only goal, it seemed to annoy Remus.

"Moony..."

Remus ignored him.

"Moony. Moooooooooonnnnnnnny. Moony! MOONY!"

"For Merlin's sake, Sirius! WHAT?"

"Hi..." Sirius said timidly. "Where's Tonks?"

"I don't know. Why is it any business of yours, anyway?" Remus asked.

"Because, she's doing to get drunk with me, and you are, too," Sirius informed him.

"Not very likely," muttered Remus.

An hour later, Tonks, Sirius, and Remus were all sitting in the living room."Why did you agree to this again?" Remus asked Tonks.

"I did tell him when I first moved in that I'd get drunk with him sometime," Tonks told him. "Stop acting so negative, Remus. It's New Year's Eve; we should all have fun!"

"Like that'll happen," he grumbled.

"Oh, come off it, Remus. Once you get nice and pissed—"

"I'm not drinking. It's a bad example to those who are underage, and, being a werewolf, it takes quite a lot to get me 'nice and pissed' as you call it," he said.

"But Remus! It's New Year's Eve! You can't just sit around all night, reading!" Sirius whined.

"I'm not going to sit around reading all night," Remus snapped. "Unlike you two, I'm actually going to get some sleep."

10:07 pm

"Why, why, did I agree to this?" Remus moaned.

"Because, you're my best friend, and you want me to be happy, Moony," Sirius answered. "Now, here, take this..."


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

**(A/N:Oh my gosh, I am sooooo sorry! I know I haven't updated in a really long time, but the past week has just been crazy! Hopefully I'll never have to go that long without updating again. )**

December 31, 1995 10:30pm

"I thought he said he could hold his drink?" Tonks asked.

"He can, but I managed to slip the really strong stuff into his glass when he wasn't looking," Sirius told her.

Remus was completely drunk off his arse, and was stumbling around like an idiot. Sirius and Tonks, on the other hand, were only mildly tipsy.

"It's kind of pointless to get him this drunk so early, though," mumbled Tonks. "He'll pass out before midnight."

"True..." Sirius said. "Hey, Moony!"

"Wha...?" slurred Remus. "Hey, I have an idea... let's dance!" He attempted to climb on top of the sofa, but fell on his bum. This didn't seem to hurt him in any way, and he jumped up, laughing. "Music! We should have music, and more drinks, and we'll party all night long..."

"The hell? The drunk Remus is like, the complete opposite of the sober Remus," Tonks observed.

"He's funny, isn't he?" Sirius commented, as the completely intoxicated Remus attempted to climb onto to sofa again. "Now then... food. It's not a party unless there's food. So how about we go downstairs and make food?"

"Food?" asked Remus. "For my party?"

"Yes, Moony, for your party. Now lets go downstairs, and we'll make a big New Year's cake for your party," Sirius told him. They went downstairs and managed to find some cake mix. "See? All we have to do is add water, eggs, and some other stuff..."

"That's ALL? That's a lot of work!" Remus exclaimed.

"Hey! There's a chair there—"

Remus tripped over the chair, which conveniently had an assortment of pots and pans stacked on top of it, and they all crashed onto the floor. "Ha ha ha ha!" Remus laughed. "That was—"

"Well, look what we have here..." said everyone's favourite potions master, who had appeared on the stairs. "Lupin, intoxicated and making a fool of himself... surprising, it's usually Black who does that, but you and Nymphadora will be soon to follow his example, I'm sure..."

"What'd you want, Snivellus?" Sirius sneered.

"Nothing," Snape snapped. "Now that I've seen that you morons are here..." He turned and left, disappearing into the darkness of the staircase.

"Meh," mumbled Remus.

"Meh?" asked Tonks.

"Both of you shut up. Baking instant cake like this is hard work, you know," Sirius ordered. He began mixing the ingredients with the cake mix.

"Instant?" asked Tonks. "It's not instant, it takes twenty minutes to bake!"

"Fire, Fire, Fire!" yelled Remus.

"Wha...? NO1 GET AWAY FROM THE STOVE, MOONY! YOU'RE GOING TO CATCH SOMETHING ON—"

"Fire! Yay, FIRE!" Remus shouted, as the stove burst up in flames.

"Agumenti!" both Sirius and Tonks shouted.

The stove, luckily, still worked after that, and they put the cake in. Remus, on the other hand, had to be tied up, for fear that he would try to go after 'the pretty shininess' again.

"Meh."

"Meh."

"MEH!"

"WHAT THE HELL DOES 'MEH' mean?" Tonks shouted.

"..."

Deciding to ignore the fact that his friend could now speak things such as '...' '!' and '?', Sirius took the cake, which was now nicely baked, out of the oven.

"Frosting!" shouted Remus, who was now struggling against the ropes binding him. "FROSTING!"

"We have to wait for it to cool—"

"FROSTING!" Remus shouted again.

Tonks shrugged, vanishing the ropes. Remus grabbed the nearest frosting can and immediately began eating it with his bare fingers. This eventually evolved into a frosting fight, which gave the cake time to cool. Actually frosting the cake, however, was a different situation all together. Remus had to be tied up again, but was served a piece of sloppily frosted cake.

"Ohh, cupcakes," he said.

"You just had cake, how could you possibly want cupcakes?" Tonks asked.

"Because... of what it says..." He pointed to the 'satisfaction guaranteed' sticker stuck to the box.

After cupcakes, the hardcore drinking began. By midnight, the three of them were completely wasted.

"3...2...1..." Sirius and Tonks slurred.

"# ... ... !... " Mumbled Remus.

"Happy New Year! Remus sloppily kissed Tonks but somehow it turned into a three person kiss with Sirius moving closer at the last second. This hurt quite a bit, as their head collided, but Tonks decided they had done well just to make it to the New Year.

Or then again, maybe they hadn't.

When she got up a few hours later, desperately having to pee, she discovered the 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' sticker on her arse, and a cupcake on her head. Most surprising of all was Sirius, still drunk, who was talking to Snape, who was also drunk and apparently had been spying on their little party for entertainment.

"...wish we'd videotaped it, be brilliant to show him later..."

"... maybe show him a pensive of what happened... be hilarious..."

"...I didn't know you like S and M, tying him up like that..."


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

**(A/N:Sorry for the delay, again, and for the short chapter! School and studying is taking up most of my time. )**

January 1, 1996

Pretty much everyone in the Order had a massive hangover. Sirius, who was used to Remus making a hangover potion for him, was in a very bad mood; Remus, who was not at all used to having a hangover, had gone back to sleep.

"Tonksie, please!" wailed Sirius. "My head... it hurts!"

"Mine does too," grumbled Tonks. "Mainly from you screeching in my ear."

` "But if you make the potion, it will go away," Sirius pointed out.

Reluctantly, Tonks managed to brew the hangover potion without setting the house on fire. Sirius had been right; the pounding in her head went away; Sirius was now content and no longer screaming. She decided to take some of the potion up to Remus, who, when she walked into his room, was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

"AGH! Nymphadora! Haven't you heard of knocking?" Remus shouted. "This is the second time you've walked in on me after a shower!"

Tonks giggled, enjoying the fact that Remus was red with embarrassment. "Here, I made you some hangover potion."

"Thanks," he said, gratefully taking the potion. He seemed to be in a much better mood after he drank it, so Tonks decided to take a chance.

"Remus..."

"Hm?" he asked.

"I don't suppose you could stay like that for a while?" Tonks asked. "You know... shirtless? And don't you dare tell me that it's inappropriate."

"Nymphadora... " he sighed. Tonks looked at him aggressively. "Oh, all right. But I'm putting some pants on."

"Hm," murmured Tonks when he returned wearing his pyjama bottoms and no shirt.

"Happy now?" he asked, sitting down beside Tonks on his bed.

"Very much so," Tonks replied, moving closer to lean against his bare chest.

"I love you, you know," he whispered, pressing his lips against the side of her head. She turned her face upwards to look at him.

"I love you too. That's the first time we've said that, not counting when we were drunk last night," she told him.


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

**(A/N : Oh my gosh I am SO sorry! Over a week without updating! I'm trying to get back to updating every other day, but it's hard. )**

January 13, 1996

An emergency Order meeting was being held; Voldemort had managed to convince the dementors of Azkaban to come over to his side. Ten dangerous death eaters had escaped, and the Aurors were having a lovely time trying to catch them.

That was the reason that Tonks, Kingsley, and even Mad-Eye were not present that evening; Tonks and Kingsley had to work extra shifts, and Mad-Eye, although retired, seemed to think that his 'constant vigilance' would help find the criminals and put them back where they belonged.

"...and last of all, Bellatrix Lestrange," Dumbledore was saying. "All of them are very dangerous, and..."

Sirius's expression was one of great fury when Bellatrix's name was mentioned. Everyone knew that she would attempt to take revenge on the blood-traitors in her family; Sirius was relatively safe at Grimmauld Place, but Tonks was an auror. Was there any chance that she would survive a duel with her aunt, who was sure to come looking for her?

The very thought of Tonks going to work that morning had made Remus feel seriously ill. Kingsley and Mad-Eye had promised to look out for her, but what if they were outnumbered by death eaters at some point? What if Bellatrix found some sneaky way to get at Tonks while she was somewhere safe? There were so many what if's, so many ways that something could go disastrously wrong, that Remus wasn't even paying attention to what Dumbledore was saying.

The meeting ended, and before Remus left the room Albus caught his eye. He knew Remus's mind had been elsewhere during the meeting, Feeling like a badly behaved school boy, Remus went upstairs to wait out the four long hours until midnight, when Tonks was due back. The clock on his bedside table seemed to taunt him by moving slowly; the seconds seemed more like hours, and when eleven o'clock came, Remus went downstairs to wait at the door, bringing the clock with him. But Tonks did not arrive home early as Remus had unrealistically hoped she would. In fact, she didn't arrive home at Midnight either. Remus who had been panicking substantially before that, was practically driving himself insane by this point. At twelve fifteen the door opened, and Remus lifted Tonks into his arms at once.

"...Remus? You don't have to suffocate me, you know," Tonks said.

"Sorry, I was just so worried Remus murmured. When he finally loosened his grip on her, he realized for the first time that she was bleeding. Badly. "What happened?! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh..."

"Relax. It's nothing, really," Tonks said, causally wiping away the blood on her forehead with her sleeve. "We nearly got Macnair, but he was rescued by his buddies at the last second. They managed to get away, leaving Kingsley worse than I am, and my forehead like this."

Even more alarmed at her casual tone of voice than by the injury itself, Remus was sitting on the floor, shaking.

"They could have... You might not of..." he stuttered, unable to remember how to make a complete sentence.

"Relax," Tonks repeated. The gash in her forehead was still bleeding alarmingly, and her sleeves were soaked. Remus forced himself to think about what he was doing as he bandaged the wound and helped her up the stairs. Every day was going to be like this now; he would worry and worry and one day Tonks wouldn't come home. The thought terrified Remus, and he held her tighter than ever that night. The end had never seemed so close, so real... so unevitable.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

**(A/N: Sorry for the short chapter!)**

January 17, 1996

Remus had been worrying that Tonks would be injured or killed on the job now that Bellatrix had escaped. He had found comfort in the fact that Kingsley and Mad-Eye protected her, and that he got to see her in the evening. Now those two sources of comfort had been taken away.

Since the dementors were now not doing their job properly, aurors had been placed around Azkaban, and Tonks was one of them. She had to stay there for a month, and by the way her letters sounded, it seemed that she was being treated much like a prisoner herself. The thing she complained about the most was the food, but the dementors were still there, causing the prisoners (and Tonks) to be terribly depressed.

Remus literally felt as if he was going to die; Tonks was separated from him, in danger, and sad. The Order was frantically searching for Bellatrix and the others, but making no progress so far. Dumbledore had instructed Sirius to search the house for information on her, but he found nothing. They'd already cleaned Bella's room and thrown almost everything away...

Except for the box.

Tonks had found the box and shown him the odd photos that were in it, but then they'd forgotten about it. The box, Remus was sure, would give them answers as to why Bella was the way she was, and possibly some of her weaknesses. But why would Tonks have kept a box that belonging to her psychotic aunt? As a reminder of how screwed up her family was? There was still a small chance she had it, however.

Remus rushed up to her room, encouraged by the thought that this might help capture Bella, thus keeping Tonks safe.

"Accio Bella's box!" he said. To his surprise, the box zoomed over to him immediately. Now all he had to do was solve the mystery of the photos...


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

**(A/N:Sorry, again, for the short chapter!)**

January 17, 1996

Remus dumped the entire contents of the box onto Tonks's floor. He madly rummaged through the photos for a while, but then realized that this wasn't telling him anything. He had no ideas on why Bella had been all over the world, partying with Muggles, and he had no ideas on how to find out. Sirius hadn't found anything either; most of Bellatrix's things had been moved to her husband's home, or to Malfoy Manor.

He read and reread the notes Bellatrix had written about her adventures; they sounded like things a Muggle would write about her travels. Remus tried for hours to figure out some connection between the places she went, but found none. That evening he wrote a letter to Tonks, in code, telling her about how the box could possibly help them find Bellatrix.

After he had sent the letter, Remus went up to Buckbeak's room, where Sirius was staring at the wall, tears running down his face. He didn't look up when his friend sat down beside him.

"Why did it have to be her?" he whispered after a while. "Why did all this bullshit have to happen to someone as sweet and innocent as my baby cousin?"

"This is what she chose to do with her life, Padfoot. She worked hard to be an auror—"

"Only because she was trying to kill herself!" Sirius interrupted. "That's why she chose that as her career—she didn't think she'd live, and this was better than committing suicide, because there was a chance she might be able to keep some other kid from growing up like she did. It's not fair!"

"I know it's not, Sirius. But Bellatrix is trying to kill her now, so we need to do everything in our power to capture her," Remus told him. "Look, when Tonks was cleaning out Bellatrix's room she found a box. It was full of photos of her partying with Muggles in different parts of the world."

"Partying? As in, not trying to brutally murder?" Sirius asked.

"Yes. A bit of a mystery, isn't it? And since Dumbledore said we should find as much info on her as possible, and we don't have any other clues..."

"It's something I can help with...right?" Sirius asked.

"Of course. There's no need for you to leave the house," Remus told him.

"Well, then... let's begin!"


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

**(A/N:A day early, because I can't update tomorrow. )**

January 18, 1996

"You know, Bellatrix wasn't always a diehard death eater, Moony."

"_WHAT_?" Remus exclaimed. They were looking through the photos of Bella, trying to figure out what on Earth she'd been doing.

"She just liked to cause trouble, and when she was a teenager she didn't realize that being a death eater caused more trouble than disobeying her parents. It's quite possible that she tried both for a while," Sirius told him.

"And why have you not mentioned this before?" Remus asked.

"I dunno. It never crossed my mind," Sirius replied. He was still enthusiastic about finding clues in the box, even though it seemed to be useless.

"Stupid thing," muttered Remus, kicking it lightly with his foot. To his surprise, the bottom fell off the box.

"Moony! You broke it!" Sirius tenderly picked up the box. "Wait...OH MY GOSH IT'S A SECRET COMPARTMENT! MOONY! IT'S AMAZING, LIKE IN A SPY MOVIE OR SOMETHING—"

"Calm down, Sirius. What's in it?" Remus asked.

"A piece of paper... it just has names on it, though. And numbers. And places. These are probably the Muggles in the photos, because the photos were numbered too. So if we match up the numbers..." Sirius began writing down the names of people, and the places, on the back of each photo.

"There!" he said proudly when he was finished.

"Hm."

"You don't seem very excited, Moony," Sirius said sadly.

"The names aren't very helpful, though, are they? I mean, they don't really help us find out why Bellatrix was with them..."

Later on that night he wrote a letter to Tonks telling her about the secret compartment, and how they were finding absolutely nothing. He waited for Tonks to reply. And waited.

And waited.

Until finally, two days later, her letter arrived. He uncoded it and read it.

_Remus, _

_ You really are astonishingly stupid for not noticing the compartment. There are a number of spells you could use to find out all the box's secrets. Unfortunately, that was the only one I found. And the names... well, you're right, they don't really help us. I'm beginning to think we might actually have to go to these places in order to find out why Bella was there. The Muggle internet, I found, was unhelpful. (I know this was kind of an Order thing, but Hermione's a Muggle born, so I had to ask for help). _

_ Over here it's sad and dreary, like usual. Hope you and Sirius are well._

_ Love you very, very, very much, _

_Tonks_


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay! I actually used to live in New York, so this chapter was fairly easy to write. Sorry for any errors, though!)**

January 23, 1996

At the next Order meeting, Remus decided it was time to tell Dumbledore about the box. He waited until after the meeting, and explained everything Tonks had said about researching the places on the Muggle internet. Dumbledore was not much help; he told Remus that he trusted his judgment and for him to do what he thought was best. What this basically meant was Dumbledore didn't have the time to solve this mystery, so Remus was on his own.

However, if Dumbledore trusted his judgment, then that meant he was free to travel to all these places and find out why Bella would go there. When he mentioned this to Sirius, he told him that it sounded rather like a vacation.

"Take me with you, Moony," Sirius whined. "I wanna party in Vegas..."

"I'm not going to be partying anywhere," Remus reminded him. "I'm just going quickly to find out if there's anything a witch like her would be interested in."

He left the following day for New York City feeling slightly guilty; Sirius was right; it was rather like a vacation, him getting to go places and see things, etc. New York City, when he arrived there, didn't really seem like much of a vacation. It was crowded and smelly, with the food and taxi's ridiculously overpriced.

"St. Patricks Cathedral, please," He told the cab driver. He grunted. The ride took fifteen minutes and cost more than Remus would like to think about.

"I'm walking next time," He muttered to himself after exiting the cab. Wishing for the millionth time that apparating in front of Muggles was legal, Remus walked up to the front door. He stood there nervously for a second, wondering if he was going to have to spend money to enter. He edged towards the door, and no one stopped him. Inside it was beautiful; the stained glass windows lighting up the place, along with the candles along the walls in what appeared to be dedications of dead people. The ceiling was a prime example of gothic architecture.

It was pretty, and seemed to attract a large number of tourists. Other than that, Remus could think of no reasons why Bellatrix would like to go there. He left, feeling rather disappointed.

Outside it was beginning to get dark, and the lights from the sky scrapers glittered around him. Wondering what it would be like to see this place from up high, Remus nearly performed a flying charm on himself, but then thought better of it. The view was definitely not worth a trip to Azkaban.

There were places he could go if he really wanted to see, Remus reminded himself. It was late, and he didn't have much money...except for the money Sirius had ordered him to use for vacation-like things, like sightseeing. But Remus hadn't intended to go sightseeing. He argued with himself for a while, but then remembered the Muggle camera Sirius had also given him.

"Screw it," he told himself. Sirius would probably get more enjoyment out of seeing the pictures from the top of sky scrapers than he would from knowing he had a hundred dollars extra. Feeling rather guilty, Remus spent the next two hours doing tourist-y things, before deciding that Sirius would be content with the large amount of pictures on his camera.

He walked back to Penn station, then took a train to the nearest apparition spot. He had to apparated several more times to get back to London, and when he arrived he was absolutely exhausted.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

**(A/N:Please continue to review... It makes me so happy... )**

January 31 1996

Over the next week Remus continued going to the places Bellatrix had seemed to like the most; the ones that were on the most postcards, the ones she had talked about the most. Over time, he'd begun to notice a pattern. Either they were gothic, dark, depressing, or had to do with death and torture. He told all this to Tonks in his letters. She seemed to find it highly amusing that Sirius wanted to make a Muggle scrapbook of all the places Remus went.

_Naturally, since he can't go anywhere, he wants to enjoy looking at photos of places you've travelled. And... there's only two weeks until I get to come home! _

Indeed, Tonks's duty at Azkaban was half-way over. To make it even better, she was returning on Valentine's Day; when Remus wasn't researching Bellatrix, he was trying to figure out what on earth he was going to do for her. He didn't have much money to but her something nice, and he'd turned down Sirius's offer of giving him more money. And then, of course, there was to problem of where to go. Out to dinner had crossed his mind, but all the nice places were expensive. He knew Tonks would enjoy some sort of concert, but he didn't really fancy the inevitable head ache.

He turned his thoughts back to Bellatrix; her favourite place in Paris seemed to be the catacombs. Remus doubted he'd find anything, but Sirius insisted that he go. Knowing that Sirius had planned to go there right before he was locked up, Remus grudgingly agreed to go, and to stay for at least a few days. Sirius also insisted that he stay in a fancy hotel, paid for by him, in order to 'get the full travelling experience.'

Remus, although convinced this was a waste of money obeyed. He packed his bags and left the next day. He checked into a fancy hotel, as Sirius had ordered, and began unpacking. But when he did so he knew immediately that something was wrong.

One of his bags was moving around; it was as if someone had out a wiggling charm on it. Remus watched in horror as the zipper began to unzip itself, a ghostly white hand crept out of the bag, followed by...

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Remus shouted. "WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?!"

"Whew. Not enough oxygen in that bag," Sirius muttered. "Oh, hey Moony... You know, I always did want to go to Paris when I was a teenager. And look... here I am!" He grinned, then flopped down on the bed, clearly enjoying his friend's shock.

"But—you... SIRIUS, YOU IDOT, GO HOME NOW!"

"I don't see why I should," he murmured lazily. "Oh, looks a television, amazing..." he flipped on the TV. Unfortunately, the shows were in French so Remus had no idea what they were saying.

"YOU'LL BE CAUGHT, IT'S NOT SAFE—"

"Of course it's safe, Moony... The French have turned a blind eye to me, it's perfect. But when I go out in public I suppose I'll use appearance charms, if it makes you feel better..."

"OUT IN PUBLIC?! YOU'RE NOT GOING OUT IN PUBLIC! YOU'RE GOING HOME, RIGHT NOW!"

In the end, though, Sirius won, as he usually did. Remus had to admit that the French weren't likely to recognize him, even without an appearance charm, so with one, the odds of him getting captured were fairly small. Excited that Remus had actually half-agreed with him for once and that later that day they went out to eat, Sirius was practically jumping up and down at the idea of talking to 'real live people' again, as if everyone in the Order were fake people.

"Sirius, for the millionth time, would you please SIT DOWN," Remus ordered.

Glaring at his friend, Sirius said to the waitress, "Bonjour…. je vais avoir de la crème glacée au chocolat, s'il vous plaît. "

"When did you learn to speak French?" Remus asked staring at him.

"Sirius knows things," his friend whispered winking.

The food came shortly after; to his surprise, Sirius had ordered a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream.

"Sirius..."

"Yes, Moony?"

Remus merely shook his head.

Later on they went to the catacombs, despite the fact that Remus was convinced they'd find nothing.

"Wow, look..." Remus said. He was holding a brochure, in English, thankfully, about the catacombs. "People have gotten lost in these things before, but the most recent one was a while ago. He name was Aureline Lambert, she was only a teenager when she disappeared.

"Wait, what was her name?" Sirius asked, looking at him strangely.

"Aureline Lambert, why?"

Without answering, Sirius began walking briskly for the hotel, dragging Remus behind him.


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

**(A/N:So sorry for the delay, and for the short chapter! My father is being a dick and keeps taking away my laptop.)**

February 1, 1996 8:48 pm

"Aureline Lambert, Aureline Lambert..." Sirius was muttering, looking through the stack of photos in the box. "Here!" he held up the picture of a pretty blonde haired girl, who was in front of the Eiffel Tower, with her arm around Bellatrix.

"Her disappearance wasn't an accident," Remus muttered. "She didn't get lost in the catacombs... she was kidnapped by a soon to be Death Eater."

"Precisely." Sirius said. "See Moony, if I hadn't came with you, you wouldn't have noticed that, would you?"

"Wha...? Of course I wouldn't have! What the hell did you do, memorize all the names on that piece of paper?" Remus asked, astonished.

"Of course," Sirius exclaimed. "I actually want to solve this, in case you didn't realize! Now, about the others... You don't suppose... that they mysteriously went missing too?"

"I doubt it , Sirius... I mean, what would be the point?" Remus replied.

"They're Muggles," Sirius replied in his 'Moony-why-must-you-be-so-stupid' voice.

"But why not just go around killing them... I mean, she didn't have to waste her time getting close to them," Remus replied.

"What if... what if Bella was on a mission for Voldemort, and Voldemort didn't like these Muggles for some reason, so he wanted to torture them.. Bella could get close to them in order to hurt them not only physically, but emotionally as well. Or what if they weren't really Muggles, but Order members in disguise...

"I don't know, Sirius, that seems a bit farfetched to me..." Remus mumbled.

The two of them spent their remaining time in France tracking down Aureline's parents. They broke the statute of secrecy to find that she was, indeed, nothing but a random Muggle. Remus also wrote to Dumbledore, who told him that there were, nor had there ever been, any 'secret' members of the Order, so Sirius was finally convinced that his theory was wrong.


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48

**(A/N: Please continue to review!)**

February 13, 1996 9:04 pm

Midnight. That's when Tonks was due back from her month long stay at Azkaban. Remus and Sirius were waiting in the sitting room, going over what they had learned so far. Or rather, Sirius was going over it, Remus was looking at his watch every two seconds, and was finding it very hard to concentrate.

"Okay, so—this is what we know so far... Bellatrix was hanging out with twenty-four Muggles over the course of two years. Nineteen of these Muggles mysteriously disappeared. Moony, are you listening?"

"Hm? Yes, of course," mumbled Remus, somewhat guiltily.

"Good. Anyway, at least seven of the Muggles that disappeared were going to marry a witch or wizard. This means that Bellatrix was quite possibly on a mission for Voldemort. Now, the question is, what about the other Muggles? It's quite possible that all but one of them disappeared, and we just don't know about it, just like it's possible that they were all set to marry a witch or wizard. ...Moony, are you _sure_ you're listening?"

"Hm."

"You're hopeless, Moony. When are we gonna go somewhere else?" Sirius asked.

"I dunno. _You_ really shouldn't be going anywhere, but as I seem lost without you..."

Sirius grinned smugly. Ever since he'd noticed Aureline's name he'd been along with Remus to several other countries, were they'd found all this information. Unfortunately, they'd been unable to track down three Muggles. Two of the Muggles, however, were alive and well; they'd talked to them, in fact.

"We could go somewhere with Tonks sometime," Sirius suggested.

"She has to work nearly all the time, and when she has off I highly doubt she's going to want to go half-way around the world with us," Remus told him.

Sirius sighed. It had been clear he'd been hoping to go on a sort of vacation with two of his favourite people. "So... What do you want to do until she gets back?"

"I dunno..."

"We could bake a cake, or play a game... "

What they really did do was sit in near silence for three hours, until the doorbell rang and Mrs. Black's portrait went off again. Tonks came stumbling in, looking very tired. Remus lead her into the sitting room before she tripped over the umbrella stand. Back in the sitting room they made Sirius very uncomfortable by passionately making out in front of him.

"Oh, come on Padfoot. Where's that girl of yours... Izzy, was it?" Remus asked.

"Izzy is busy with quidditch Sirius informed them apparently they're going to be playing at the next world cup. She doesn't have time to do Order work anymore, so forget about me.' Sirius said glumly. "She promised she'd come see me in April, though..."

"Well, that's good. Now, if you'll excuse us..."

Remus and Tonks disappeared upstairs, much to the dismay of Sirius, who was left alone in the kitchen.

"You're not tired, are you?" Remus asked her. They were lying on his bed pressed as closely together as possible.

"I missed you," Tonks said simply. "Sleep can wait."

She began kissing his forehead, his nose, and his lips. Remus responded eagerly, but after a few minutes realized that Tonks had vanished his shirt.

"Nymphadora..."

"Yes, Remus?" she replied cheekily.

"Where is my shirt?"

"Gone." She smiled smugly.

"Come on, I need it back."

"Why? I've seen you shirtless before, and you know I don't care about the scars. "

Remus glared at her, rather uncomfortable with where this was going. "Because, it's inappropriate."

"Come off it, Remus. We've been together for more than a month, and yet you find it inappropriate to take off _your shirt_?" I mean, I'm not asking you to get completely naked or anything..." She fell asleep soon after that, her arms wrapped tightly around his bare torso.

Remus stayed awake for a while, thinking. The truth was, he'd given a lot of thought to the idea of 'getting completely naked' with Tonks the past month, and he was quite ashamed of it. He told himself it was best to forget about it, and fell asleep.


	49. Chapter 49

Chapter 49

**(A/N: Sorry, but my parents are dragging me camping this weekend **** This means I won't be able to update on Saturday or Sunday. To make up for this, I am giving you one chapter today, one tomorrow morning, and a chapter as soon as possible on Monday, maybe even Sunday night. Sorry! )**

February 14, 1996 10:45 am

"Remus...wake up..." Tonks gently shook Remus, who was fast asleep. He made a moaning sound, not unlike a ghoul.

"It's Valentine's day, Remus..." Tonks said.

"Hmm... WAIT, WHAT?!" he said, sitting straight up in bed. After a moment he seemed to snap out of it, going back to normal Remus.

"Nymphadora. Happy Valentine's Day." He leaned over and kissed her.

"Moony..."

"OKAY, HONESTLY?!"

Sirius had just apparated directly into Remus's bed room; he was smiling smugly. Remus wondered why for a second, then realized that Tonks was wearing nothing more than her knickers and a bra. They were very nice, black lace with little bows, but...

"NYMPHADORA, PUT SOME CLOTHES ON! SIRIUS, GET OUT!" Remus yelled.

Neither of them, as expected, did what Remus told them to do; Tonks just sat there giggling, and Sirius continued to smirk.

"Moony, Tonksie, guess what?" Sirius exclaimed. Without waiting for an answer, he replied, "Izzy's back! SHE'S BACK! Now we can have a Valentine's day foursome!"

"Not likely," Tonks told him. "Now shoo."

Sirius disapperated, but Tonks continued to giggle.

"Wha...?"

She pointed at his pyjama pants, where...well...

"Shit." He muttered, as Tonks exploded into laughter behind him. "Shit , shit, shit."

"How could you not notice..." Tonks laughed, "That you have a... a raging hard-on...?" She erupted into giggles once more, while Remus sat there blushing. This was definitely not part of his Valentine's Day plan.

It took a half an hour for Tonks to stop giggling, and by that time Sirius had made pancakes for Remus, Tonks, and Izzy. Izzy, thanks to her quidditch training, had quite a spectacular black eye.

"Izzy!" Tonks squealed. "Guess what Remus got this morning...?"

"I thought you had quidditch practice for the world cup?" Remus asked Izzy before Tonks could tell her about his... situation.

"I got out of practice because the other day a bludger hit me in the face. Pretty nice timing, huh?" She glanced at Sirius, who was wearing a huge, stupid grin on his face.

"Anyway, Izzy and I are going to go upstairs and have some awesome, Valentine's Day-"

"Tonks and I are leaving," Remus cut in. "As we certainly don't want to be around you to while... well..."


	50. Chapter 50

Chapter 50

**(A/N: )**

February 14, 1996 11:30 am

"Remus, where are you taking me...?" Tonks asked as they left Grimmauld Place.

"You'll see," he told her, smiling."As you know, while you were at Azkaban Sirius and I had some... I suppose you might call them 'adventures'. "

"That doesn't really tell me much," Tonks said.

They arrived at the apparition site soon after that, and Remus wrapped his arms around Tonks protectively, then apparated to the same fancy hotel he and Sirius had stayed in while they were in France.

"Remus!" Tonks exclaimed. "You took me to France?"

"It was one of the places Sirius and I went," he explained.

"I hope you didn't spend too much..."

"Sirius insisted on paying for most of it," Remus admitted. "So... what would you like to do?"

"Oh... I don't know. I've never really thought about going to France before," she told him.

They ended up walking around, looking in shops, and going to a few sight-seeing places as well. By five o'clock they were completely exhausted and returned to the hotel room, where they watched TV.

"That was fun," Tonks murmured, her eyes half-way shut from how tired she was.

"I thought you'd like it," Remus replied, rather proud of himself for thinking of this idea; It had been exciting and Sirius hadn't been able to interrupt them. "And just so you know, we're not done yet. Be ready by seven o'clock, okay?" And then he walked out of the hotel room, hoping Tonks would think to wear something fancier than jeans and a T-shirt.

At seven o'clock, Remus walked back to the hotel. Sirius had threatened to take away all his books, as well as his secret stash of chocolate (Remus still wasn't sure how he knew about that) if he didn't make sure Tonks had a brilliant time. And, according to Sirius, it was impossible for Tonks to have good time unless Remus spent at least 100 galleons on something nice to wear and a fancy restaurant. That was why Remus was dressed in a nice tuxedo, and had something rather special planned for that night.

"Tonks, I'm back..." Remus said, stepping into the room. "Where are...Sweet. Merlin."

Tonks was looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her. The funny thing was, though, she wasn't morphed; he hair was brown and wavy, somewhat like Bellatrix's. She was wearing a black strapless dress that came to her knees, as well has shiny black high-heels.

"You look... amazing," he told her.

Tonks blushed; she despised her natural form, but knew Remus would like it.

They took a Muggle taxi to the Eiffel Tower, where Remus had reserved seats in their fanciest restaurant, Jules Verne.

"There's no restaurant on the top, I'm afraid, but we could go there later if you like," Remus suggested. Tonks nodded, smiling.

The fancy restaurant was expensive, even by Sirius's standards, and Remus had to stop Tonks from accidentally ordering snails for dinner. After dessert they went up to the top of the tower, looking down at a starlight Paris.

"You didn't have to do all this for me, you know," Tonks told him.

"I wanted to. And Sirius insisted," Remus replied.

"It's so pretty up here," Tonks whispered.

"It is," Remus agreed, kissing her gently on the cheek.

They went back to the hotel room, where they watched TV for a while, before being distracted by each other.

"I love you," Tonks whispered, as Remus nibbled her ear. He was practically on top of her now, and was beginning to unbutton her shirt.

"Remus!"

Remus smiled cheekily at her, knowing that he was doing something naughty and that both of them were fine with it.

Suddenly, Kingsley's patronus appeared. "Emergency. Return at once."


	51. Chapter 51

Chapter 51

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay! Please keep reviewing, it makes me so happy! **** )**

February 14, 1996 10:09 pm

Remus and Tonks arrived back in London barely three minutes after receiving Kingsley's patronus. They went to Grimmauld Place, unsure of where to meet him. Luckily, Kingsley was waiting by the front door, pacing nervously.

"There you two are! Hurry up, the Death Eaters have attacked. Well, no one knows it was them, but we're pretty sure it was Bellatrix..." Kingsley explained. "Because, well... Tonks's parents have been attacked."

"What?! You can't be serious—"

"I am serious, and speaking of Sirius, he's there now with Izzy. I tried to convince him not to go, there are other aurors all over the place, but he insisted..." Kingsley continued. "He used a disillusment charm. "

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for?!" Tonks shouted. "Lets go!"

"I'm not sure there's much you can do, at least at your mum's house. She didn't... well, I don't think she really wants to see you," Kingsley told her. "Instead, we're going to search like crazy for the Death Eaters tonight, particularly Bellatrix. Remus... well, you're technically not supposed to know about this yet."

"Wonderful. So I have to wait here," Remus muttered.

"Sorry, mate," Kingsley said. "Hopefully we'll be back by dawn."

"Bye, Remus. Love you," Tonks murmured, kissing him. Remus tried not to think about how this might be the last time he ever saw her; being an auror was a dangerous job.

Remus sat alone for three hours, worrying, until Sirius and Izzy came home with a rather trilling tale about how Sirius had nearly been captured by an auror. Remus didn't find it very entertaining. Sirius and Izzy went to sleep (or, at least, they went to bed... from the odd noises coming from upstairs, Remus kind of doubted they slept at all).

Remus spent the rest of the night alone, waiting for Tonks to return. He seemed to be doing a rather lot of that lately. Dawn came and went, and at nine o'clock Mad-Eye's patronus appeared, telling him to report to St. Mungo's at once.


	52. Chapter 52

Chapter 52

**(A/N:Sorry for the short chapter! )**

February 15, 1996

Remus rushed to St. Mungo's as fast as he could. He found Mad-Eye in the waiting room, looking impatient.

"Tonks, where is she? What's happened? Oh Merlin, she's not dead, right?" Remus said, panicking.

Moody just stared at him for a moment, making him wait, before finally saying, "Tonks is fine. Kingsley, on the other hand..."

Mad-Eye led Remus to Kingsley's room, where he was sprawled out on the bed, eyes closed. A rather nasty looking gash, dangerously close to his heart, was bleeding rapidly.

"What...?" Remus gasped.

"Bellatrix," mumbled Tonks, who was sitting beside Kingsley, tears streaming down her face. "My dear aunty..."

"Is he going to be okay? Did Bellatrix escape? Where—"

"Slow down," growled Moody. "As you know, Bellatrix attacked Tonks's parents last night. Everyone expected her to get the hell out of there, and they started searching quite a ways away from the house. Unfortunately Bellatrix was waiting in the house for Tonks, knowing that she's an auror. Tonks didn't go inside until about a half an hour ago, and Bellatrix threw a knife at her. Unfortunately, Tonks's mum tried to repel it away, but messed up the spell, and it hit Kingsley."

"Wait— how did Tonks's mum not know her sister was in her house?" Remus asked.

"That's the funny bit—we don't know. I have a sneaking suspicion that Andromeda isn't really on our side. That would explain how the knife 'accidentally' hit Kingsley. But, then again, she did notify the auror office when she saw Bellatrix..."

Tonks made a sniffling noise, and Remus moved closer to her, wrapping his arm around her. She snuggled into his chest, a rather distressing expression on her face.

"As for Kingsley... well, Bella had some curses on that knife, and it's taking us a while to work them all out. He'll probably be okay, though," Mad-Eye said.

The rest of the morning was spent trying to uncover and undo the curses on Kingsley's wound. Around noon Mad-Eye suggested that Tonks and Remus go interrogate Tonks's mum. Tonks hesitated at first, but then agreed.

"This is going to be an absolute disaster," Tonks murmured as they left the hospital. "I haven't talked to my mum since I graduated Hogwarts..."


	53. Chapter 53

Chapter 53

**(A/N: Review? Please? )**

February 15, 1996 12:35pm

"Hi mum," Tonks said.

Andromeda just stared at her daughter.

"Mum, can—can we come in?" Tonks asked timidly.

"Why?" Andromeda said finally.

"Well... I kind of need to ask you some questions about—about what happened last night," Tonks stuttered nervously.

Andromeda didn't say anything, but she opened the door a little wider. Tonks took this to mean she was allowed inside, and Remus followed. It was dark and it reeked of smoke inside; to Remus's werewolf senses it was rather suffocating, but he had to stay with Tonks, who's jaw was clenched, her eyes straight ahead. When Remus tried to grab her hand she pulled away.

Feeling slightly worried, Remus followed her into the sitting room and sat down on the sofa. Andromeda came in shortly after and stared at them.

"Mum, why didn't you tell somebody Bellatrix was still inside?" Tonks asked, looking at the floor.

"She's my sister," Andy said curtly.

"But she belongs in Azkaban! She's mad!" Tonks argued.

"Why did you alert the aurors if you didn't want her to get locked up again?'" Remus asked.

"She..." Andy began slowly. "She's my sister. But perhaps it would be better for her to be... back in a place where she cannot hurt people. But I had to talk to her one more time, I had to make sure she was okay before the aurors captured her, so I didn't tell anyone she was still in the house. I planned to, but she started saying all these things... about how I was the bad sister, I never respected our parents... she told me that, as Blacks, it was in our nature to be cruel, unforgiving. And I've known this all along, that all Blacks are destined to be evil... But it sounded so different, so much more real, coming from my sister's mouth... And because of that, I botched up the spell used to vanish the knife; I never meant for it to change directions, or to stab that auror! I—" Andromeda stopped, as if realizing she didn't seem at all intimidating if she was pouring her heart out to others.

"I... see." Remus wasn't entirely sure she was telling the truth, but there was a certain look in her eyes that told him she probably was.

They questioned her for a few more minutes, but she didn't really provide any useful information. Their visit ended abruptly when Andy realized Remus was an old friend of Sirius's and told him to get out of her house immediately. As they left she poured herself a glass of Vodka, reminding Remus again of what Tonks had told him in December; her mum was definitely a drug addict from the smell in the air, and was probably an alcoholic as well.

Remus and Tonks apparated back to St. Mungo's and climbed the stairs to Kingsley's room. On the way Tonks tripped, and while Remus was helping her up he noticed her eyes were overflowing with tears.

"Don't be like her, Nymphadora. Don't hide your feelings from me," he whispered as he pulled her into a hug. He held her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder. "It will be alright," he murmured, although he knew there was nothing to be done about what had happened in the past.


	54. Chapter 54

Chapter 54

**(A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, again! Studying is taking up most of my time now. ****)**

February 15, 1996

"I need to go to Kingsley's flat," Tonks informed Remus after undoing curses on Kingsley's unconscious body for an hour. He said he'd take care of Mittens while I was locked up—I mean, guarding Azkaban."

Grudgingly, Remus agreed to go with Tonks to retrieve the kitten that hated him so very much. He waited outside while Tonks gathered up the kitten's belongings, like food and toys, as well as Mittens, who was mewing pathetically.

"It's alright, your mummy's here to feed you now," Tonks cooed, much to Remus's disgust.

"It can't understand you, Nymphadora," he told her, exasperated. Tonks glared at him. "We can drop that thing off at Grimmauld Place with Sirius, then we'll go back to St. Mungo's and help Kingsley, okay?"

When they arrived at St. Mungo's there were a couple of Healers, as well as Mad-Eye gathered around Kingsley's bed, undoing the enchantments on him. This was much easier than it had been before, because Kingsley was now awake and could tell the healers exactly what was wrong with him.

By suppertime they had removed nearly all of the curses that the enchanted kife had inflicted on Kingsley, but the thing with cursed weapons was the wound had to be healed naturally, not by magic.

"So now all we have to do is wait," Kingsley sighed. "Brilliant."

"You two should go back to Grimmauld Place now," Mad-Eye told them. "Keep Sirius up to date."

Tonks and Remus apparated back to number twelve, where Sirius was waiting impatiently by the front door, as Izzy had left a few hours ago. "Well?" he asked.

"They think he's going to be okay, as long as the wound heals properly," Remus informed him.

"Thank Merlin," Sirius sighed. "He's not going to be able to go to work, though, is he?"

"No," Tonks said. "Which means all the aurors are going to have to work some extra shifts until he gets better. I don't really mind though, just as long as he's okay."


	55. Chapter 55

Chapter 55

**(A/N: Again, sorry for all the short chapters! ) **

February 19, 1996

Kingsley had recovered enough to stand up, walk around a bit, and sit back down. All the aurors still had to work extra shifts, which meant Tonks was not able to go around the world with Remus investigating Bellatrix. True, she was glad Kingsley was okay, but she would have liked to get her revenge on Bella by doing something other than searching fruitlessly.

Sirius, also, was no longer allowed out, even to countries where, formally, they had not known about his escape. Thanks to Scrimgeour, people all over the world were now searching for him.

"And that is why you cannot come with me to visit Aureline's parents again, Padfoot," Remus said after repeating all the reasons why it was far too dangerous for the millionth time.

Sirius glared at him, his eyes filling up with tears. "She's my cousin, Moony! I have to get her back for all the bullshit she did, I have to!"

"We'll take care of it for you," Remus snapped, ignoring the fact that Sirius's eyes were now overflowing.

"Moony! You're not my mother!" Sirius shouted.

"You're too irresponsible to make your own decisions, it seems," Remus snarled back.

"YOU CAN'T FUCKING TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Sirius screamed as Remus turned and walked out the door. "I'll show him... show him..." Sirius whispered, fists clenched. "I will NOT TOLERATE BEING TREATED LIKE A CHILD ANY LONGER!"

It took Remus less than five minutes to get to Paris and then two more to apparated to Aureline's parent's house. Monsieur and Madam Lambert had been expecting him; they, alone, seemed to want to solve the mystery of their daughter's disappearance, unlike the other relatives of the disappeared that Remus had contacted. Luckily for him, the Lamberts knew English. He talked with them for over an hour about the different possibilities; death, imprisonment, torture. Unfortunately, his visit was cut short by a patronus from Tonks.

"Sirius has gone missing. Return immediately."


	56. Chapter 56

Chapter 56

**(A/N: Sorry for short chapter, and for the fact that I forgot to put this chapter online last night!)**

February 19, 1996

"Where is he...?" Remus asked frantically when he returned to Grimmauld Place.

"Not here, obviously," snapped Tonks, who was waiting there for him. "I got home seven minutes ago to find him gone and a note on the kitchen table saying 'Fuck you, Moony.' What the bloody hell did you do?"

Remus sank to his knees. "I got mad at him... It'll be all my fault if he goes back to Azkaban..." He buried his face in his hands.

"Never mind that now, do you have any idea where he went?" Tonks asked.

"He said he wanted to go to Andromeda's," replied Remus.

"What are you waiting for?! Let's go get that idiot!"

It was steadily growing darker outside as they searched around the house, but he was not there.

"Which means he's probably inside," Tonks whispered.

"Dora! Behind you!" Remus yelped as a hooded figure appeared behind Tonks. She spun around, drawing her wand.

"It's okay," Tonks said. "It's just my daddy."

The figure took off his hood and mock-glared at Tonks. "It's cold out here, Dora. You should be wearing something warmer than that. And who is this?" He turned to Remus. "I thought I was the only one allowed to call you Dora..."

"Your... daddy?" Remus repeated.

"Never mentioned me, did she? Who are you, anyway?" Ted Tonks asked.

"Never mind that now," Tonks said. "Come on!"

They all went over to the nearest window and peered inside.

"What are we doing?" Ted whispered. "Are we pretending to be spies? I love spies!"

"Daddy?" Tonks said sweetly.

"Yes, Dora?"

"We are trying to save one of the members of the Order from a terrible death at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange, Who happens to be inside your house right now, torturing Mum's cousin. Now shut up, we need to find a way to get inside without being killed ourselves."

"Bella..." Remus asked, looking back through the window. His view, unfortunately, was blocked by a mass of insanely curly hair, and an even more insane face of a mass-murderer staring back at him through the window.


	57. Chapter 57

Chapter 57

**(A/N: Review? Please?)**

February 19, 1996 9:09pm

"Hey, look! It's my wife's mad, murderous relatives!" Ted Tonks exclaimed.

"Yes, daddy," Tonks said impenitently. "And she see's us."

"Well, this seems like fun, doesn't it?" Ted said brightly. "We get to pretend to be real warriors, and kill the bad guys!"

Remus shot Tonks a 'WTF?' glance, but she ignored him.

"Don't hurt Sirius, daddy. He's on our side—"

"Hellooo..." They all glanced at the window to see Bellatrix waving, her eyes dilated in a slightly terrifying way. "It's my wonderful bloodtraitor niece, how lovely. Looks like we have the whole family here now... _Bombarda!_" She aimed her wand at the window and it exploded into a million tiny pieces of glass, allowing her to step through the window so she was face to face with Tonks. From Remus's view he could see Sirius unconscious on the floor, and Andromeda standing beside him, looking unsure of what to do, and somewhat—

"Guilty," Remus whispered. "She betrayed her own cousin to her insane sister—"

"And now I have you all, all of the bloodtraitors of the Black family, and the Mudblood father as well!" Bellatrix was saying. "Now tell me... Which of you wants to die first?" She smiled.

"Hey, you know it's not very nice to say stuff like that..." Ted said, as Tonks just stared, paralyzed with fear, at her aunt.

Remus, by this time, was beginning to panic. Both him and Tonks were standing perfectly still, gazing in horror at Bellatrix Lestrange. Ted Tonks appeared to be on some kind of drugs, probably pot judging from his eyes, Sirius was unconscious, and Andromeda was... standing over Sirius, a dagger in her hand.

"No!" Remus shouted. Bellatrix was momentarily distracted, and turned to face him. She waved her wand and vines began to grow around his feet, tripping him. He couldn't move, and the vines were slowly crawling up his body, preparing to suffocate him. His wand was knocked out of his hand and Andromeda was staring at him. He saw her lips moving, saying his name. She had recognized him as one of Sirius's friends. A look of fury came over her face and he saw the dagger moving quickly towards Sirius's chest.

The vines crept up to his throat, making him unable to speak, so he would have to think the vanishing spell as hard as he could. _Evanesco, Evanesco. _The dagger vanished at the last second, to Andromeda's shock, and the fact that Sirius was not in any imminent danger seemed to comfort Tonks a bit, as she cried, "_Crucio!"_ at Bellatrix who fell onto the ground, writhing in pain. In the split second before Remus lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, he caught a glimpse of Tonks's face; it was by far the most terrifying thing Remus had ever seen. A lifetime of hatred at her family was showing in her eyes, and, at that moment she looked even more insane then her aunt.

That was all Remus could think as his mind began shutting down, the vines wrapping themselves ever tighter around his neck.


	58. Chapter 58

Chapter 58

**(A/N: Review... please? It makes me so happy... )**

February 19, 1995

Tonks was panicking. True, aurors weren't supposed to panic, but both Remus and Sirius were unconscious, and her father was roaming around making unhelpful comments.

"Wow, this is really exciting, isn't it, Dora?" Ted asked.

"Daddy, help, please!" Tonks shrieked.

Ted, realizing his daughter was in danger, punched Bellatrix hard on the back of the head. Bella, who was quickly learning from her mistakes, shot the same spell at Tonks that she had shot at Remus, and Tonks tripped and fell.

"_Diffindo!" _ Tonks shouted, but aimed her wand at the vines binding Remus instead of the vines bounding her legs, which were slowly creeping up her body. "Please... be okay..." She shot another spell at Remus, and to her immense relief, he stared breathing shallowly. Unfortunately by this time the vines had begun squeezing her stomach and chest, making breathing quite difficult. She tried to cut them off with another Diffindo spell, but her head was spinning to much to aim properly, and she ended up slicing her side open.

Meanwhile Ted was dancing around Bellatrix, and Andy was just staring at them all uncertainly. There was a _crack _and a voice shouting "_Diffindo!"_ Tonks sat up gasping, looking around for her saviour. Izzy was there, still wearing her quidditch robes, her blonde hair flying as she began to duel Bellatrix.

Tonks, though still lightheaded, began to help, and within a matter of minutes Bellatrix was lying unconscious in a heap, bound with ropes.

"Can we kill her?" Izzy asked, breathing heavily.

"No. The law says she has to go back to Azkaban, where the dementors will perform the kiss," Tonks answered. "How did you...?"

"Sirius. He tried to send me a patronus, but didn't finish his message. I assumed he was in trouble, so I went looking for him. He wasn't at Grimmauld Place and Dumbledore suggested I come here. Hopefully I wasn't too late..." Izzy answered, her eyes filling with tears at the sight of Sirius's body.

"You get him. I'll tend to Remus," Tonks told her softly.

_"Defibrillate!"_ she shouted. Remus awakened with a jerk. "What... happened?"

Tonks collapsed on top of him, sobbing. "You're okay... I thought for sure you'd be dead."

Remus struggled into a sitting position, Tonks still crying into his chest. "I'm fine. Where's Bellatrix? Sirius? Why are you bleeding? _Lumos." _He held his wand against the gash in her side.

"I'm just clumsy, that's all," Tonks mumbled. "Izzy's over there, tending to Sirius. She was brilliant, she saved us. And Bellabitch is..."

"Gone," said Sirius. He was standing up, supported by Izzy. His arms had deep cuts in them, and he looked as if he were about to murder somebody. Somebody named Andy, who was kneeling in the spot where Bellatrix had been tied up moments earlier, severed ropes in her hands. "Someone has a bit of explaining to do."


	59. Chapter 59

Chapter 59

**(A/N: )**

February 20, 1996 12:09 am

"What. The. Hell," snarled Sirius. They were all gathered in Andromeda and Ted's kitchen, having decided not to call in the aurors, as it would be too late by the time they got there and Sirius would have to stay out of sight. Which he was definitely not in the mood to do, considering his cousins betrayal. "You choose her over me. HER who you've known from the very beginning was on Voldemort's side, over ME, who you've thought for the majority of your life was a good guy, until I went to Azkaban for a crime that I DIDN'T EVEN COMMIT."

"But... I never knew that you..." Andy started, trembling.

"TONKS TOLD YOU. SHE WAS ONLY EIGHT AND YET SHE KNEW I WAS INNOCENT."

"She was just a child, she couldn't have possibly known," mumbled Andy.

"You both were told I hadn't been given a trial. You knew, I'm sure, that there was a chance I was innocent. And yet you still betrayed me to your psycho sister! Not to mention after I was locked up you became a FUCKING DRUG ADICT," Sirius screamed. He was about an inch from Andromeda's face, glaring at her in such a way that Remus was sure he was going to murder her any second.

Tonks was staring at the ground, clearly uncomfortable. Remus wrapped his arm around her waist, and she drew closer to him. Unfortunately, Ted Tonks saw this and decided that it was a good idea to announce his opinion.

"Hey, look! You two are HUGGING. Does that mean you're TOGETHER? That's so sweet!" Ted exclaimed.

Remus quickly removed his arm, but Andromeda had already seen. Suddenly everyone was involved in a different argument.

"You—you're a WEREWOLF! GET YOUR FILTHY PAWS OFF HER!" Andy screamed.

"Such a cute couple they are," Ted said, smiling. "I've always dreamed about the day my little girl would go off and marry—"

"You nearly KILLED ME. According to Remus you had a dagger pointed at my HEART," shouted Sirius. "And you helped that mental sister of yours ESCAPE!"

"Sirius, please do try and calm down," Izzy pleaded. "You're in no state to be standing right now... you really ought to lie down and sleep..."

"Tell me, Dora, have you had sex yet?" Ted asked enthusiastically.

"Dad..." mumbled Tonks, turning red, "Do try to mind your own business..."

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Remus yelled. Everyone turned to stare at him, Tonks's eyes wide; he had never yelled like that before. "Now, we are going to have a nice CALM discussion about Andromeda's actions tonight. Don't get off topic, and for Merlin's sake, don't yell anymore."

Everyone nodded, Andromeda and Sirius a bit hesitantly.

"Now, Andromeda. Why did you knowingly help a mad, murderous Death Eater? I am well aware that she is your sister, but Sirius is your cousin, a much more trustworthy one at that."

"Because I agree with her on certain things," Andromeda spat. "Like the fact that werewolves are scum and should not DARE to lay finger on my daughter!"

"Take it back," Tonks hissed, her wand aimed at her mother's heart.

"Nymphadora sit down!"

"DON'T YOU EVER. EVER. SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT HIM! YOU'RE IN NO PLACE TO, WITH OUR RELATIVES, WHO HAPPEN TO BE MORE VIOLENT THAN REMUS WOULD EVER BE ON A FULL MOON—"

"Yes, you tell her, Dora!" Ted said.

"Sit. Down. NOW," Remus ordered.

"AND IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN YOU WILL DIE, BECAUSE I LOVE HIM A HELL OF A LOT MORE THAN I EVER LOVED YOU—"

"Come on, Tonks, we're leaving," Remus told her, lifting her up and carrying her through the door.

"Ooh, are do you have a party to go to?" Ted asked excitedly. "Me too!"

And with that all three of them left the house and apparated to Tonks's flat, leaving Sirius and Izzy to question Andy.


	60. Chapter 60

Chapter 60

**(A/N: I know a lot of sources say only people in the Order can use patronuses to communicate, but I changed it for this chapter. Review? )**

February 20, 1996 7:38 am

"Dora... Wake up..." Ted said softly in his daughter's ear. "Dora. DORA, GET YOUR LAZY ARSE OUT OF BED!"

"Wha...? I'm awake, I'm awake," mumbled Tonks as she fell off the sofa and landed on the floor. Her father's shouting had also woken Remus, who opened his eyes calmly and did not fall down. Or at least, he didn't fall down at first; when he tried to help Tonks up, however, she managed to make him lose his balance and fall directly on top of her. He glanced up nervously to see Ted beaming down at the two of them.

"I got a patronus from Sirius about a half hour ago," he said. "He and Izzy are fine and they are currently keeping Andy at Grimmauld Place. She had a nice long discussion with Dumbledore last night about where her loyalties lie. He decided it was best, for the time being, to have her somewhere where she can constantly be watched."

"Well that's nice," Tonks said sleepily. "Is there coffee?"

"Of course!" Ted exclaimed. "It's over there on the counter; I took the liberty of making it earlier. Unfortunately, the contents of your refrigerator have gone bad, so we'll have to do something else about breakfast. Maybe I'll run down to the store quickly and but some food. What do you think, Dora?"

"Sounds good to me," Tonks replied, going over to the counter and drinking an entire mug of coffee in less than five seconds. "Thanks, Daddy."

Ted smiled and left the flat.

"He seems like a complete pothead. Worse than I thought he'd be," Remus said. "Oh, well. At least he's not mentally delusional like your mum."

"I don't think he really smokes that much anymore, to be honest. He's been like that since I was born, and it's led me to believe that the stupid things he says are his idea of humour," Tonks explained. "The overfriendliness is just a personality trait."

"Hm," Remus said as Tonks got up to poor herself more coffee. "Would you like some, Remus?"

"No, thanks," Remus replied. He was staring at the wall, deep in thought. "I've met him a few times before, if I remember correctly. I always thought he was a bit odd..."

"Yes, well, he tends to have that effect on people. Does it on purpose, I think; he never liked the idea of being 'normal'."

"I wonder what would happen if he met Luna Lovegood," Remus murmured.

"Who?"

"Just this second year I taught when I was DADA professor. Quite an imagination she had..." Remus said. "Do you reckon your father approves... of us?"

"Of course. He's very open-minded. Mum on the other hand... well, no one really cares what she thinks, so it doesn't matter," Tonks said, now finishing her second cup of coffee.

"But... I'd feel guilty going any further with this if both your parents don't accept me," Remus explained.

"We won't be able to convince her," Tonks told him. "It's just not going to happen."

"Dora, I'm back!" Ted called, throwing open the door. "I got biscuits... and more biscuits..."

"Biscuits aren't exactly a healthy breakfast choice," Remus reminded him.

"Come on; be a bit more open-minded..." Ted said, holding out a biscuit to Remus.

Remus looked at his eyes, which were surprisingly clear of hatred and disgust, and realized that Ted wasn't merely pretending to like him just because he was with his daughter. Ted, surely, knew what he was, and yet he didn't judge him for it.

"Thanks," Remus said, accepting the biscuit. One of Tonks's parents approved of him, and, for now, that would do.


	61. Chapter 61

Chapter 61

**(A/N:I replaced the other chapter 61 because it comes later in the story (oops). Sorry for any confusion this caused!)**

March 10, 1996

"Remus... wake up..."

"Hm."

"Remus, it's your birthday..."

"Wha...?" Remus mumbled, opening his eyes sleepily to find Tonks sitting on the edge of his bed, looking distinctly mischievous. "Who told you that?"

"Sirius did," she replied. "And we're going to throw you a huge party, and you're going to like it."

"Honestly, Tonks, I don't want a big fuss—"

"You'll enjoy it!" Tonks argued. "You have to, or else I'll—"

"Or else you'll what?" Remus enquired.

"I'll tickle you," Tonks threatened.

"You wouldn't dare," Remus told her. "Hey, what are you...? STOPT THAT!"

Tonks had gotten on top of him and was tickling him mercilessly.

"Okay, I'll enjoy it!" Remus said, throwing up his hands in surrender. Tonks stopped tickling him and curled up on the bed, a smug expression on her face.

"Hmph." Remus stared at the wall moodily.

"You know you secretly like me tickling you. And you like the fact that we're throwing you a party, too, even though you won't admit it. And you like the fact that we've invited the entire Order to this party—"

"WHAT?!" Remus exclaimed. "The ENTIRE ORDER?"

"Yes, but some of them probably won't come," Tonks replied.

"This is going to be an absolute disaster..." Remus mumbled, burying his head in his pillow.

"You secretly like it," Tonks teased.

"You secretly like it when I call you Nymphadora," Remus shot back.

"I do not," Tonks argued, although he was right.

"If you two are done flirting in there, the guests will be here soon," Sirius called from outside the door. "And although Tonks and I did the majority of the work last night, there are still some things that need to be done..."

Tonks rolled her eyes and snuggled closer to Remus, who was still pretending to be mad at her.

"You know you love me anyway," she whispered.

Grudgingly, Remus put his arm around her, ignoring Sirius's angry shouts that they were both lazy gits and that he, Sirius, was going to end up doing all the work himself. And this really wasn't fair, considering it was Sirius's birthday party too, as his birthday had been two days ago, and he'd insisted he wanted to celebrate with Moony.

"I suppose I better go and help him," Tonks said, reluctantly getting up. "You stay in here until we tell you it's okay to come down, okay?"

"But I can help—"

Tonks shook her head. "No helping allowed on your birthday." And then she left the room.

Remus sighed. Leave it to Sirius and Tonks to make a big deal about the fact that he was another year older. He got up and showered, miserably thinking that he was now thirty-six years old, fourteen years older than Tonks.

Remus dressed in his favourite blue shirt and brown trousers and sat on his bed waiting. He was tempted to go downstairs more than once, especially when he heard something sounding like an explosion coming from two floors below him.

"Okay Moony, you can come downstairs now," Sirius called through the door finally.

Remus braced himself for the worst, then left the safety of his bedroom for the catastrophe that the party would be.


	62. Chapter 62

Chapter 62

**(A/N: IMPORTANT: I replaced chapter 61 with a new chapter on October 30****th**** 2012; the original chapter 61 comes later in the story. So go back and read the new chapter 61, or you'll be terribly confused. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused you!)**

March 10, 1996

Did you read the Author's Note (above)? Go back and read it if you didn't, or you'll be confused about what's happening in this chapter. Anyway... Remus cautiously walked down to the kitchen, glad to leave the smell of burning... well, he couldn't tell exactly what it was, but he was glad to leave it behind. He strongly suspected this had something to do with the explosion he'd heard earlier.

"Happy birthday, Remus!" shouted what seemed to be a million people. As was usually the case when faced with an entire crowd of people all staring at him, Remus's first instinct was to go hide somewhere. Then he realized that it was not a million people; it was less than a dozen; Molly, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Kingsley (who had now recovered completely, to the relief of all the aurors working extra shifts), Mad-Eye, Izzy, Professor McGonagall, and, of course, Sirius and Tonks.

"Um," he said awkwardly.

** "**He just grows up so fast," Sirius sobbed, going over to give his friend a hug. "My little Moony, all grown up..."

Tonks giggled, and Remus glared at her. Padfoot was clearly doing this to embarrass him, and it was working. He didn't need Tonks laughing at him as well.

McGonagall was looking at him with a fond expression on her face, but she announced, "I'd love to stay for the little party, but I must get back to Hogwarts... There are papers to grade, fat Ministry snoops to keep up with..."

"No! Minnie, don't leave!" Sirius cried.

"Sirius Black, how many times do I have to tell you NOT to call me Minnie!" McGonagall snapped, the cheerful expression gone from her face, and replaced with a scowl that somehow didn't hide the laughter in her eyes. "Detention! I mean—happy birthday, Remus. Goodbye."

Sirius fell to the floor laughing, and everyone else started helping themselves to the food, which had been graciously made by Molly.

"I know Tonks is useless at cooking," Molly told Remus. "I tried to give her lessons once, but she nearly burnt the house down. Twice. And Anyway, I simply had to make you something for your birthday, and Sirius's too..."

"Thank you, Molly," Remus replied. "It looks wonderful."

She opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought better of it. She smiled a bit uncomfortably, and then walked away.

"Wha...?" mumbled a rather confused Remus.

"I expect she wanted to apologize," Charlie informed him. "When she found out that you were a werewolf she said some pretty terrible things about you. Doesn't think that way anymore of course, but now that she's seen how nice you are, she probably feels kind of guilty."

"Oh," Remus said, not really sure if he felt pleased by this information or not.

"Remus!" Tonks called. "Come have some cake, you're too thin."

"Sirius Black, get down from that table or I'll turn you in!" Kingsley was shouting to an already tipsy Sirius, who was standing on one of the tables laughing.

"See, it's not so bad, is it?" Tonks asked.

"The party? I suppose not..." Remus replied, scooping a piece of cake up with his fork. "But that's mainly because hardly anybody's here." He went to put his fork in his mouth, but discovered it had no cake on it. "Tonks?"

"Hm?" Tonks said, licking a bit of frosting from her lips.

"Did you steal my cake?" Remus asked.

"Really Remus, would I do something like that?" Tonks asked, stealing a bit more cake off his plate.

"I can do that to you know," he told her. And then he kissed her, easing his tongue inside her mouth and stealing the cake back.

"Hey!" Tonks protested as Remus smiled mischievously.


	63. Chapter 63

Chapter 63

**(A/N:Sorry for the short chapter! Review anyway? Please?)**

March 10, 1996 10:10pm

Remus had decided by the end of the day that this was by far the best birthday he'd ever had. Everyone's attention, for the most part, had been on Sirius, much to Remus's relief. He had a sneaking suspicion that Sirius had told everybody that large crowds made Remus nervous, but that was alright.

Halfway through the little party Andromeda had appeared from her new room, where Sirius kept her locked up most of the time. As you could imagine, she was not at all pleased that a 'filthy lycanthrope' was staying in the room she'd had as a teenager. Sirius had gotten quite angry when he'd heard this and escorted her, none too happily, back upstairs. Remus was quite used to Andromeda and her somewhat dementor-like presence in Grimmauld Place, and was successfully ignoring her.

For now, he was content. Tonks was curled up next to him on the sofa in the library, her eyes closed. Remus was unsure of weather she was asleep or not.

"Dora?" he whispered.

"Hm?" she replied opening her eyes.

"Are you sleepy?"

"A bit," she replied. "I wasn't asleep just now, though. I was thinking... how much more can we really do about these disappearances? Bellatrix kidnapped these people; we don't know what she did with them. They could be anywhere! And really... how is this helping the Order?"

"Their families would want to know what happened to them," Remus reminded her softly. "They would want the bodies back."

"How does this help the Order?" Tonks asked again.

"It doesn't," Remus admitted. "And we probably should be focusing on finding the death eaters right now, instead of trying to find out about their pasts... but still. If it were me... I would want to know what happened if one of my friends went missing."

Tonks didn't say anything; she just stared at the fire, its light dancing in her eyes. Remus went back to reading his book, and when he glanced down at her again her eyes were closed, and her breathing deep and even.

Knowing that she truly was asleep this time, Remus lifted her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom, tucking her in.


	64. Chapter 64

Chapter 64

**(A/N: So yeah, I changed the rating to M just to be safe. Hopefully this chapter doesn't offend anybody (But I know that it will).It's pretty sexual, but it's kind of a big part of the story, so... it's your choice to read it or not. )**

March 11, 1996

You did read the Author's Note (above), right? Because this one's pretty important too. Anyway...Remus woke up in his own bed. Alone. He was really starting to hate this; what he really wanted was to wake up every morning beside Tonks, to be able to hold her as soon as he opened his eyes, but he couldn't really seem to be able to say this to her. She was so innocent, after all... and besides, Remus wasn't so sure he wanted Tonks to see him first thing every morning. Because some mornings, like this one, things would get a bit... awkward.

Awkward considering that this morning he had a boner. There was no doubt that this was because of some dreams he'd been having lately involving Tonks and some slutty lingerie; he was going to have to talk to Tonks about some stuff, and soon. The wolf had always been rather demanding about certain needs, but up until this point Remus had been quite good at ignoring those needs. Tonks was starting to change that; she was beautiful, yes, but he'd always known that. Recently, however, he'd begun to notice her in a whole different way, not having done so before because he'd thought it disrespectful. It was still disrespectful, no matter how the wolf tried to convince him that she belonged to him, and he hated himself for thinking of someone so seemingly innocent in that way.

Remus forced himself up from his bed, face flushed with shame. Yes, sharing a bed with Nymphadora Tonks would be a very, very bad idea. Who knew what kinds of things he'd say in his sleep. This made him think about Valentine's Day, how in the morning he'd been hard. It was a wonder Tonks had only laughed about it, not saying anything to him. But what if he'd said something in his sleep then?

Still being plagued by the 'what ifs' that always seemed to haunt him, Remus took care of a certain need that seemed determined to cause him as much discomfort as possible. His erection was starting to ache and throb, and he hated it. Hated that the wolf thought of women as merely being 'property'. Why must he be such a monster? He was positively disgusted with himself.

"Moony..." Sirius called through the door. "What are you doing in there? It's nearly ten o'clock, you've overslept by two hours. Are you okay...?"

Remus heard the door knob turning. "Sirius do not open the do—SIRIUS BLACK, GET OUT OF MY ROOM, HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF PRIVACY—"

"Hi Moony. Quite a hard on you've got there, is it because of my baby cousin?" Sirius asked, grinning. When he glanced at the expression on Remus's face, however, his cheerful expression slid off his face. "Somebody looks upset. What's wrong, Moony?"

Remus merely shook his head, not wanting to talk about this with anyone, especially not with Sirius. Even though Sirius was his closest friend and was looking more concerned than Remus's had seen him since he'd told him Lily and James were dead...

Feeling rather guilty, considering Tonks was Sirius's cousin, Remus began to talk. "It's the wolf, it keeps thinking of Tonks as an object... if she knew she'd kill me... and yet I have no idea what I'm going to do about this... she just makes me so turned on all the time... I can't go without talking to her about that forever, can I?"

"WHAT? You two haven't done it yet? Izzy and I started fucking barely an hour after we met..." Sirius exclaimed. "But of course, you're Moony, you were always a prude. Look, this what you do; you go up to her and say, Tonks you make me horny, shall we go fuck? And then you go fuck. It's easy!"

"Sirius. You are _raving_. She's barely of age, this is so inappropriate..." Remus stuttered.

"Come off it. She's not innocent, she's probably not even a virgin," Sirius argued.

"Are you drunk?" Remus asked, his face turning redder by the second.

"No, Moony, I'm just trying to talk some sense into you. Believe me, she's not going to kill you if you suggest it," Sirius told him. "Now stop being such a self-sacrificing bastard, and go get laid."


	65. Chapter 65

Chapter 65

**(A/N: Eeep! Sorry for short chapter! I'll try to make it longer next time!)**

March 29, 1996

As the weeks passed, though, Remus never did talk to Tonks. He knew that she'd noticed there was something wrong, but after he'd denied anything was bothering him the first and only time she'd asked, she'd left it alone. He could still tell by her eyes that she was still worried, and it made him feel terribly guilty.

"Remus?" Tonks had asked one night. "Would you like to come and cuddle with me?"

"No thanks, Dora. Not tonight," Remus had replied as kindly as he could, though he was still afraid he'd hurt her feelings.

Sirius wasn't helping matters much either. When he wasn't threatening to tell Tonks himself if Remus didn't hurry up about it, he was raging about Umbridge and the terrible time she was giving Harry. He had pestered McGonagall at the last Order meeting until she'd given in, admitting that Delores was being 'quite a bitch'.

Sirius, who had never heard McGonagall swear before, had gone into shock, thinking that the woman must be quite terrible.

In addition to the problem with Tonks, Remus was beginning to get frustrated with the Bellatrix mystery. He'd recently talked to Aureline's parents, who were also anxious to see their daughter again, even if it was only her dead body. He was still curious, of course, about why two of Bella's 'friends' hadn't mysteriously disappeared, but he was more concerned about finding the bodies at the moment. Bodies. Surely that's all they would be; surely Bella hadn't cared to keep any of her victims alive...?

He tried talking to Tonks about it, but she just looked at him with that worried expression and told him that she didn't know.

Remus, discouraged, had retired to the library with book. He fell asleep halfway through it, and when he opened his eyes he found Tonks curled up next to him, rubbing his chest and attempting to hide her anxiousness.

"Hello, Nymphadora," he murmured, kissing her forehead. She smiled slightly; it was only then that Remus realized how long it had been since he'd shone any sort of affection to her. It was no wonder she was worried; he'd been treating her like someone he barely knew. "I'm sorry, Dora."

"What?"Tonks asked, looking confused.

"I love you," he whispered. "I always will. I'm sorry for making you fret about me, but it's just..."

"What?" she repeated.

"I... Merlin, I don't know how to say this..." he said, face turning red. "I—"

"Moony..." Sirius called through the door. "You should probably come downstairs..."

Remus sighed. Leave it to Sirius to mess this up.


	66. Chapter 66

Chapter 66

**(A/N:Review? Please?)**

March 29, 1996

"Really Sirius?" Remus whispered to his friend. "Really? You called us down just because Molly is here making lunch and brought a smelly bundle of old rags with her? Tonks and I were just about to talk about you-know-what."

"Oh, you mean the fact that my baby cousin makes you impossibly horny—"

Remus elbowed him in the stomach as hard as he could. Luckily, neither Tonks nor Molly had heard; they were too busy glaring at the smelly bundle of old rags named Mundungus.

"Mundungus Fletcher!" Molly shouted. "Get your feet off the table, NOW!"

Dung quickly removed his feet looking terrified. Tonks sat down as far away from him as possible, looking rather disgusted as Molly cast a cleaning charm on the table.

"Sandwich, Remus? You're looking rather peaky," Molly said.

"The full moon isn't for more than a week—"

...

"Remus, eat a sandwich," Tonks ordered. Her new theory was that Remus was ill. There was simply no other way to explain how he'd been acting the past few weeks. He'd been withdrawn from everybody, even her.

On the other side of the room Sirius was laughing about something and Remus was looking quite uncomfortable, but he accepted the sandwich and went over to sit by Tonks. She wrapped her arms around him hesitantly; unsure of weather he'd pull away.

He turned to face her, eyes full of longing. He kissed her gently; or at least, he tried to. Sirius was making "eew" noises in the background like an immature first year. Remus bit into his sandwich, glaring at Sirius again. Molly glanced over at Remus and Tonks, smiling.

"Have you heard about the horrible things Umbridge has been doing at Hogwarts?"Dung asked.

"Yeah, Minnie told me," Sirius grumbled. "I wish there was some way to get revenge on that old hag..."

"Don't even think about it, Sirius," Molly snapped. "You'll get yourself back in Azkaban!"

"I won't," he muttered, but he wasn't looking at her when he said it.

"Don't you think you've caused enough trouble already?" asked Remus, who had noticed that his friend was probably not being truthful. "I mean, you nearly got caught in the Gryffindor fire, you try to go outside to visit your Andy, who tries to kill you..."

"Not to mention he's often the reason I have extra shifts," Tonks said teasingly.

Sirius merely glared at everyone in the room. "Easy for you lot to say," he muttered, and then disappeared upstairs to write a letter to a certain pair of twins. It would be in code, of course, but he'd make sure to get his revenge...


	67. Chapter 67

Chapter 67

**(A/N: Sorry for late update. I just had some issues going on the last few days. :P )**

March 30, 1996 8:02am

"Remus... are you awake?" Tonks asked, shaking him gently.

"I am now," Remus replied, opening his eyes to see Tonks sitting on the edge of his bed, looking absolutely adorable. He struggled into a sitting position, his muscles aching. The full moon was less than a week away.

"Why do you do this?" Remus asked, kissing her cheek.

"Do what?" she asked.

"Come in here while I'm sleeping," he told her. "I sleep talk, you know. Or so Sirius tells me."

"So?" Tonks asked. "Are you hiding something from me that you're afraid you might say while you're asleep?"

"No," Remus mumbled, blushing. Tonks gave him a funny look but said nothing more about it.

"Molly is here again, making waffles for breakfast," Tonks informed him.

"Hm. Alright, I'll be down in a bit," Remus murmured.

Tonks left the room, returning to the kitchen where Sirius was already half-way through with his waffles.

"Well?" he asked.

"He said he'll be down soon," Tonks told him, gazing at her plate of food sadly. She was not very hungry anymore; Remus was hiding something from her. But then, she was hiding something from him as well; how worried she was. Not just about their relationship, but about everything. She'd received an owl earlier that morning from Izzy. Her parents had been brutally murdered by death eaters. It was quite obvious who had done it, even though no dark mark had been cast over their house. The ministry, however, had informed Izzy that Voldemort had nothing to do with this; it was merely Sirius Black and the Azkaban escapees causing trouble again.

Izzy was a muggle born; a random muggle born at that. The death eaters didn't know that she was in the Order. More muggle born families would follow, she was sure. It could be someone like Hermione's parents next time. It could be blood traitors as well. But surely Voldemort didn't want to draw attention to himself just now? Tonks wasn't so sure anymore. Of anything.

"Are you alright, Tonks?" Molly asked with a worried expression.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Just not very hungry is all..." Tonks left the kitchen, heading up to her bedroom. Unfortunately, she met Remus on the stairs. He was looking rather guilty.

"Dora! Are you done eating all ready?" he asked.

"I'm not hungry," she told him.

He gave her the same worried look Molly had given her.

"I'm fine, though," she assured him. She would not tell him about Izzy's parents, she would not. He would only worry more.


	68. Chapter 68

**(A/N: MEEP! SO sorry for the delay! I've lost track of this story a bit, with that thing called real life interfering, but I am back now! I'll try to start updating regularly again. I'm also thinking about after I'm done writing, going back and changing a couple of things, because this story isn't really as good as I originally hoped it would be, so yeah... I WILL finish the story though, and there will most likely be a sequel. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not a very good author in the sense that I hardly do any planning for fanfics... sorry!)**

April 1, 1996 4:03 am

Sirius was in an excellent mood; after all, it _was_ his favourite holiday by far. Aril Fools Day, he often said, was a holiday dedicated to the Marauders. Today, he had _plans. _Wonderful plans that involved finally annoying everyone in the house.

Unfortunately (well, not for Sirius, but for everyone else) there were quite a few people in the house that day. The kids, unfortunately, would remain at Hogwarts for Easter, but Molly, Arthur, Bill, and Charlie, were at residing at Grimmauld Place. Mad-Eye, Kingsley, Izzy, and Emmeline were also there, along with Remus and Tonks.

Yes, today was going to be very interesting indeed.

Very early in the morning Sirius crept into Remus's room with a bowl of warm water. It was a childish trick, he knew, but the thought of prim, proper, Remus (not really, but Remus did like to pretend so) wetting the bed was positively hilarious to Sirius. To his dismay, however, Remus did nothing more than twitch uncomfortably in his sleep.

Sighing, Sirius settled for putting an alarm in Remus's room that was to wake him up at six, with a half-dozen fireworks and banshee scream. He would do this to all of Grimmauld Places' occupants, barring Izzy, who was his new partner in crime.

Sirius looked around Remus's room for other things to do to upset his friend. He considered the use of permanent sticking charms, which could be quite fun, but decided against it after remembering an incident in fourth year, when Remus had threatened to hang him by his balls from the ceiling in the great hall if he ever did anything like that again.

Eventually Sirius decided on charming all of Remus's shirts to say embarrassing things at random moments, and his shoes to start dancing of their own accord. As an afterthought he conjured a puddle of slime for his dear friend to stand in at the side of his bed. This particular slime was very sticky and nearly impossible to get off.

Sighing happily to himself, he crept into Tonks's room, where he conjured a special alarm clock for her, then hung her guitar from the ceiling, in a place where it would hit her on the forehead as soon as she sat up in bed. He put a series of charms and spells on a number of her belongings. When she was getting dressed she would be sure to set them off; they included objects that he knew she needed flying around aimlessly until she caught them, and a guitar pick that scuttled across the room emitting odd beeping noises that would be sure to annoy her.

Sirius went around doing this to half the rooms in the house, Izzy doing the other half. It was nearly six when Izzy realized they hadn't done anything to Mad-Eye's room. They exchanged glances nervously, knowing that if he woke up, whoever was in there was very likely to be turned into a ferret. Sirius eventually decided to be a gentleman, sparing his girlfriend the transformation. In return, she promised not to laugh when he was bouncing down the steps in ferret form.

"I'll do the hallway, while you're at it," she whispered. "I don't know, I'll turn the floor into ice and some other stuff. Have fun."

Sirius nodded, smiling mischievously. He opened the door to Mad-Eye's room and crept inside, which turned out to be a very, very, big mistake.


	69. Chapter 69

Chapter 69

**(A/N: Go back and make sure you read chapter 68 before moving on to this one, because up until yesterday chapter 68 was nothing but an Author's Note, but now it's an actual chapter. Thanks!)**

April 1, 1996 5:57am

Hey... so I know a lot of people don't read the Author's Notes... but considering that last time I updated it was nothing but an Author's Note, yesterday I replaced it with an actual chapter. So, make sure you read chapter 68 before moving on to this one. Thanks. Anyway...

I do mean it, go back and read the previous chapter or else you'll be very much confused.

As soon as Sirius stepped into the rooms Mad-Eye sat straight up in bed, his magical eye spinning sickeningly in its socket. Both his eyes fell on Sirius, and a very angry expression came over his scarred face.

_This is why we don't wake up old people, _Sirius could hear Remus saying in his head. _Especially not aurors. Because if an auror lives to be old, they're probably not very hospitable first thing in the morning._

Sirius gulped. "Um... sorry, I walked into this room on accident..."

Mad-Eye glared at him, his magical eye narrowing.

Sirius fleetingly hoped that had had enough time to finish making the hallway nice and April Fool's-ish, because it seemed to Sirius that the whole house was about to be woken up. Not only because the clock on the wall read 5:59, but because Moody's face was quickly turning red and his hand wrapped tightly around his wand.

When the clock changed to six o'clock quite a number of things happened in quick succession. The fireworks that were in everyone's room, barring, Izzy's, Moody's, and of course Sirius's own rooms, went off and there were several screams and shouted curses. There was a series of thuds on the stairs, presumably Tonks falling down them, and the _pop_ of someone apparating, probably Izzy trying to find safety.

Sirius didn't find any of these things nearly as amusing as he thought he would, considering that Mad-Eye had pointed his wand at Sirius and was glaring at him in a rather horrifying way.

"W-what—"

_Pop. _

Brilliant. He was a ferret. A _ferret. _Moony was going to love this.

"Thought you'd play an April Fool's Day joke on me, eh?" Mad-Eye growled. "Well, you certainly—won't—try—that—again!" he emphasized each word with a wave of his wand, causing Sirius, in ferret form, to bounce up and down on the stone floor.

Meanwhile, on the first floor, Remus had barely recovered from his fall down the stairs. Surprisingly, it had been him with the clumsy streak this morning, not Tonks, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that the floor, as well as the stairs, were now made of ice.

His morning had started off with fireworks going off right beside his bed, which had scared the living hell out of him, and when he made to get up he slipped in a pool of slime that had been beside his bed. Cursing, he had tried to get the stuff off using a variety of spells, but had been unsuccessful. He'd put his feet inside his shoes anyway, pulled on a fresh shirt, and made to grab the doorknob to find out what on earth this was all about.

Unfortunately, he had some of the slime on his hands, which turned out to be incredibly sticky. He'd had a fun time getting his hand off the doorknob and when he finally did make it into the hall, his feet had started dancing of their own accord, and he'd slipped on the icy floor and fallen down two flights of stairs.

It was quite a miracle that he hadn't broken his neck.

He laid on the floor for a little while, terrified to get up. He finally conjured himself a pair of ice skates and skated around a bit, rather shakily.

Tonks, unfortunately, chose that moment to open her door and step out of her room, looking quite pissed off and with quite an impressive bruise on her forehead.

She slipped, inevitably, and Remus attempted to catch her. Not only did they both fall down, but his hands, still covered in slime, had glued themselves to her T-shirt.

While she was bust swearing profusely, and he was busy blushing, as his hands had not chosen a very appropriate place to attach themselves to, an army of beeping guitar picks exited from her room, followed by several more of her belongings, including a lacy purple thong that Remus suspected she didn't especially want escaping.

Alas, his hands were currently gripping her arse, and he couldn't do anything but try wandless magic, which of course, didn't work. All it did do was blush at the sound of him saying "_Accio Tonks's knickers!_", and then blush harder as she realized where his hands were.

"What is going on, Remus..?" she asked, motioning to the chaos the hallway was in right now, with people slipping and swearing all over the place.

"It's April Fool's Day," Remus muttered. "Sirius's favourite holiday. I can't believe I forgot, and much as I wish it was, I don't think that it's over yet."


	70. Chapter 70

Chapter 70

**(A/N: Oh yesh, three chapters in three days... much better than I had been doing. Review? Please?)**

April 1, 1996 6:20am

Somehow Tonks and Remus made it downstairs for breakfast without breaking their necks, although both of them had a significant amount of bruises, due to Remus's inability to use his arms to balance on the ice. This meant that Tonks was left to balance both of them on the slippery ice.

When they finally did make it down to the kitchen, where, luckily, there was no ice, they found Sirius, in a mood nearly as bad as theirs. He was black and blue from head to toe, and was muttering something about Moody under his breath.

"I'm assuming this is your fault," Tonks said to him icily.

Sirius looked rather guilty for a second before saying, "The ice wasn't my idea! It was Izzy's. And honestly... does it really look like I'm enjoying April Fool's Day all that much this year?" He motioned to the bruises on his arms.

"What did you do, try to creep into Moody's room to play pranks on him?" Remus asked incredulously.

"..."

"I can't believe you were that _stupid_!" Remus exclaimed.

"Like I said, I'm not the one who thought of the ice, so don't cause me any more bodily harm on me, okay?"

"Don't act like you didn't cause us any!" Tonks told him indignantly. "Who was it that put that guitar above my bed for me to hit my head on? I know Izzy wouldn't do it—she wouldn't dare hurt a musical instrument."

"I'm an old weirdo!" Remus's shirt exclaimed. "I enjoy shagging as many girls as possible, and I like lying down in the road waiting for buses to run over me."

"HAHAHA!" Sirius laughed, forgetting about his injuries rather quickly. "The expression... On Tonks's face... priceless!"

"Sirius Black is my favourite person in the whole world!" the shirt continued. "He's so charming, clever and sexy... yes, sexy, like Johnny Depp."

"It's just brilliant how it says this in your voice, isn't it Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, Sirius Black has a very nice arse," said the shirt, in Remus's voice, just as Kingsley entered the kitchen, giving Remus a very odd look.

"Hello, Sirius," he said calmly. He appeared to be unhurt from the icy floorboards upstairs, but had a bright blue afro on his usually bald head. "Having a nice time so far this April Fool's Day? I assume you're responsible for this... interesting... hairstyle." He didn't seem to be angry; he merely grabbed a slice of toast and walked out of the room.

"Padfoot...? Would you mind, you know, unsticking my hands from your cousin's bottom?" Remus asked, blushing furiously.

"Moony!" Sirius exclaimed. "What were your hands doing down there in the first place?!"

"She slipped and I attempted to catch her," Remus snarled. "It was nothing like that, she's wearing a long T-shirt and I aimed for her waist, but..."

Sirius merely laughed. Remus, on the other hand was getting quite irritated. Furious, in fact. The full moon, drawing ever closer, did nothing to help his temper. He was prevented from doing anything daft, fortunately, by Tonks, had noticed his mood. She waved her wand barely a centimetre, unnoticed by Sirius... or, at least until he was turned into a ferret for the second time that morning.

Eventually Tonks managed to work out the spell to get the slime to unstick itself without Sirius's help. Remus went upstairs to change shirts, but, to his dismay, they had all been charmed to say inappropriate things at inconvenient moments, which meant they spent the rest of the morning uncharming inanimate objects. The guitar picks, unfortunately, had decided to hide in the walls, under beds, etc. And thus Tonks was forced to put a silencing charm around small hiding spots.

Bill returned her lacy black thong around lunchtime. Luckily they were good enough friends to be able to laugh about it, especially considering that Tonks had accidentally shone her knickers at Hogwarts more than she'd like to admit.

**(Review... please?)**


	71. Chapter 71

Chapter 71

**(A/N: Yay, two new reviews! More?)**

April 1, 1996 3:04pm

Remus and Tonks were in the library, the door incapable of opening due to the large amount of enchantments they'd cast on the door. Even so, they were both quite worried that Sirius would find his way in for the sole purpose of annoying them.

Tonks was lying down on the sofa, her head on Remus's lap. He was absently toying with her hair while reading, completely oblivious to the way she shivered in delight whenever his fingertips brushed the back of her neck.

She glanced up at him, her eyes drifting across his features and coming to rest on his eyes. They really were lovely; a deep blue that reminded her of the Ravenclaw common room, especially considering that the fire was reflected in them, completing the house colours. They skimmed over the page he was reading quickly, but she could tell that he savoured every word.

He looked so adorable, and yet, something was missing...

She reached up and ruffled his hair. Perfection.

"Nymphadora!" he said mock-angrily.

"You look so much better when your hair is messy," she informed him. "Not like the shy, prudent, professor-like person."

He glared at her, but the twinkle in his eyes told her that he was only joking. "What on earth am I going to do with you?" he asked. "Messing up my tidy hair..."

"Not as bad as Sirius, though, am I?" she sniggered.

"No, not nearly as bad," he admitted. "In fact, I really doubt that anyone could come close to being as bad as he is, except for maybe the twins."

She pulled him down for a kiss, but he hesitated. "Remus, for Merlin's sake, what's wrong?"

"Hm? Nothing," He said, not meeting her eyes.

Tonks remained silent. He glanced at her, but quickly looked away when he realized that she was still waiting for an honest answer.

"Merlin, I... I don't know how to say this..." he muttered.

_Lovely. He's breaking up with me, he's finally had enough of my childishness and—_

"You're really beautiful, you know," he continued.

_Sugar-coating it. Just Wonderful. _

But then he kissed her, which was not what she was expecting at all. He kissed her more passionately than he usually did, trying to be slow and tender with it, but failing miserably as how hungry he was for her became clear. His hands seemed to work their own kind of magic as he cupped her face gently and brought her closer, running his hands through her hair, his fingertips leaving tingles where they landed.

He unhurriedly lowered her down onto the sofa, until he was more or less on top of her, never breaking the kiss. She could feel his hands finding the edge of her shirt and stroking the soft skin on her waist; the sensations this caused made it quite difficult for her to suppress a whimper especially as his hands climbed higher and higher beneath her T-shirt. But all too soon he stopped.

"That's why I haven't been myself lately," he told her. "I'm terrified that, with you, I might go too far."


	72. Chapter 72

Chapter 72

**(A/N: )**

April 1. 1996 3:20pm

"Remus..."

Remus obstinately stared at the floor.

"Remus, would you look at me?" Tonks pleaded. When he did not reply she crossed the room and stood directly in front of him. He was blushing, but not in the usual adorable Remus-like way. He merely looked embarrassed and rather sad.

"Remus?" she said softly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"What...?"

"I'm a dark creature, Dora. You've fallen in love with a dark creature that can't control its needs," he told her, still looking at the floor.

"Honestly, Remus," Tonks sighed. "I don't care that you're a were—"

"My human instincts, Dora."

"What?" she looked up at him, not understanding.

"Male instincts," he muttered. "Sexual instincts."

"Oh," she said, realizing at last what the problem was. "You know, Remus, you might have told me."

"No! I couldn't have, it's too inappropriate, especially for someone as young as you. I'm practically a paedophile!"

"I'm of age—"

"Barely!"

"And by the time I was seven I'd seen more terrible things then the average adult, Remus. I'm _not_ a child. I'm not innocent and naive like you think I am," Tonks reminded him, rather angrily. "I've seen people die—hell, I've even killed them myself. They were dark wizards, and, granted, I had permission, but still..."

Remus remained silent, staring into the fire.

"You're not a dark creature—"

"I am."

"Only once a month! Honestly, it's not your fault—"

"Doesn't matter."

They argued for a good while, not really angry at one another, but frustrated. They gradually drifted away from the topic of Remus's sexual instincts, which, actually, had probably been part of his plan. Tonks thought it seemed oddly suspicious as she lay on the sofa after they'd finished quarrelling. Remus had gone downstairs with the excuse that he fancied a cup of tea.

He was embarrassed, of course, Tonks thought to herself. He did get embarrassed quite easily, and it was really no wonder, really, that talking about something so sensitive had caused him to react this way. She questioned, fleetingly, weather he'd ever done it before. He was a bit old to still be a virgin, and surely, as he was part of the Marauders and had the influence of Sirius, he must have done it sometime...

Remus came up a bit later, surprisingly (Tonks had been expecting him to go off and hide in his room) and she cornered him.

"You're not escaping," she told him.

"Wha..?"

"We're going to talk about what you don't want to talk about, weather it makes you uncomfortable or not," she informed him.

He looked rather terrified, but set his mug down on the coffee table.

"Are you a virgin?" she asked him, out of the blue. She rather felt like she was interrogating him like a suspected dark wizard, and it wasn't a very nice feeling at all.

"No..." he muttered, resuming his habit of looking at the floor, or the fire, or the ceiling... basically anywhere but her.

"No? Do tell."

"Um. Well, it was Sirius's girlfriend actually..."

"What?!"

"He insisted that I needed to, erm—yes, well, and he volunteered her," Remus told her, glancing fleetingly at her eyes and then away again.

"I don't even want to know," Tonks muttered.

"She wasn't exactly happy about it, granted, but there was alcohol involved..."

"So why are you so bloody embarrassed?" she asked him.

"Don't you think it's... well, too soon, for me to be thinking about this, though?" he asked. "I mean... I have certain urges, yes, and being a werewolf intensifies these..."

"And you don't want to risk our relationship because you're tremendously horny," she finished.

"Well, yes..."

Tonks found this quite hilarious. Prim, proper, Professor Lupin was talking about losing his virginity and how horny he was. Who would have ever thought...


	73. Chapter 73

Chapter 73

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay! My computer is having serious problems even though it's practically brand new, and the internet is quite difficult to access at the moment. )**

April 1, 1996 6:03pm

Tonks and Remus stayed in the library for the majority of the day, terrified of the April Fool's jokes that were still sure to come. Eventually, however, hunger convinced the two of them to try and sneak downstairs. Unfortunately, the hallway was still made out of ice and neither of them realized it. Which meant that they hardly sneaked down the stairs; they slipped and clung to each other as they fell down all five flights to the kitchen.

Needless to say, neither of them was very happy when they arrived there, bruised and, in Tonks's case, bloodied, considering she had somehow scrapped her arm on a jagged piece of ice.

She got up from the ground swearing profusely, as Remus continued to lay there, slightly dazed. Molly, Kingsley, Dumbledore and Bill glanced up from the table. Kingsley and Bill attempted to conceal a laugh, while Dumbledore continued to sit there calmly, amusement dancing in his eyes. Molly glared at Tonks for her language and proceeded to help Remus up, asking if he was all right.

"I'm fine, Molly," he said, glancing at Tonks's arm nervously. It was bleeding freely, but no one seemed to care much, Tonks least of all. She was looking quite furious, muttering the things she was going to do to Sirius and Izzy under her breath, while glaring at Kingsley and Bill, who were still sniggering.

Molly didn't seem to find this very funny at all. After she was done making sure Remus was okay (which involved asking "Are you _sure_ you're okay, Remus dear?" over and over) she went around the table and smacked both Kingsley and Bill on the back of their heads, scolding them for laughing. Needless to say, they both were quite immediately.

Molly insisted that Remus and Tonks sit down for some supper, which turned out to be some delicious beef stew. Tonks was still muttering to herself, bleeding worse than ever, so Remus took pity on her and healed her scraped arm with his wand.

After supper Dumbledore managed to remove the ice from the hallway, saying how it really was an extraordinary bit of magic, and he was quite proud of Izzy for making it so complicated to undo.

After this Tonks went off to find Izzy and kill her, while Remus went off to find Sirius to have a very, very long talk with him.

Despite the fact that the hallway was now made out of wood once more, Tonks managed to slip and fall a grand total of six times before she found her friend, who had wedged herself into a tiny room in the attic that Tonks hadn't known existed, and still wouldn't have if Izzy hadn't been blasting the Weird Sisters from inside it.

They had a long shouting match and eventually pulled out their wands for a duel. Tonks won easily she screamed down the staircase for Dumbledore to please come up here and tell Izzy that she failed everything. At that point Izzy begged for forgiveness and promised that she'd never do anything like that again.

After that they decided to stay in the attic and listen to the Weird Sisters as they talked about random things like ways to murder someone by using a rubber band, a banana and a rocking chair.

Remus, on the other hand, did not find Sirius for quite some time. He searched the whole house, even the attic, where he heard very loud and disturbing noises coming from somewhere inside the wall. It sounded like someone choking to death while playing the electric guitar, and he could have sworn he heard the words "murder" and "banana".

Then, from somewhere above him, he heard drunken moaning, so, completely aware of how dangerous this was, and of how he'd told himself that he'd locked away his inner marauder for good, he opened the window and climbed out, balancing himself precariously on the ledge. He brought himself up to full height and looked up onto the roof, where a drunken Sirius was dancing.

"What. The. Hell, " he muttered, realizing that he would have to get Sirius down or else risk him dying when he fell from a height of... five stories up? Six?

"Bloody brilliant," he muttered.


	74. Chapter 74

Chapter 74

**(A/N: GAH. I hate my internet. Twice in a row, this happens; long download is 99% done... internet explorer has stopped working. Grr... *breaks nearest glass object* So, yeah... sorry if I can't upload chapters regularly. Because my internet is an ARSE.)**

April 1, 1996 8:38pm

"Remus?! What are you DOING?!" hollered Tonks, upon exiting the hidden room in the attic and seeing Remus's legs balancing precariously on the window ledge.

"Saving your idiot cousin," Remus called back, as he pulled himself up onto the roof, his feet disappearing from Tonks's view.

She made to follow him, but Izzy stopped her. "If you follow him, you're going to break your neck," she warned.

"He's five stories off the ground—"

"And can manage walking ten metres without falling over. Relax, he'll be fine... and what is Sirius doing on the roof? And how did he get up there, drunk? And why has he not fallen to his death yet?" Izzy asked.

Tonks merely shrugged, glancing out the window nervously. Remus's calm voice arguing with Sirius's slurred one could barely be heard above the wind.

"Sounds like a storm's coming," Izzy commented.

Tonks nodded, jumping out of the way as an old broomstick flew through the attic door and through the window. Seconds later Remus and an unconscious Sirius appeared. Tonks and Izzy helped them through the window, shutting it behind them just as a few raindrops started falling from the darkening sky.

"Thank Merlin," Izzy muttered, heaving Sirius off the broom. "I thought he'd trip and fall off the side of the building. Wouldn't be surprising if both he and Tonks die someday because of clumsiness."

Tonks moved closer to Remus, and the rain started lashing at the window, the sky nearly completely dark by now.

"I had to stun him in order to get him to cooperate," Remus informed them. "Wish I'd thought of that last time..."

"Last time?" she asked.

"In fourth year decided it would be a good idea to climb the Astronomy tower during a storm. It was quite a wonder he wasn't killed; lightning all around him, and the roof, which wasn't exactly flat, was partially metal. I, of course, had to go save him. McGonagall gave both of us a week's worth of detentions and a very long talking to," he explained.

"At least that time he wasn't drunk," Izzy pointed out.

"I don't really think it makes that much of a difference; he's a blithering idiot with ungainly limbs weather he's intoxicated or not," Remus muttered, glaring at his friend, who was, by this point, waking up.

Having no desire to babysit Sirius any longer, Remus and Tonks hid in the library for the remainder of the day. They thoroughly abused him in their conversation about how stupid he was, but agreed, albeit reluctantly, that he was still brilliant and lovable and a world without him would be a very dreary world indeed.

Afterwards they sat curled up on the couch, sipping hot chocolate and listening to the rain pouring on the roof. Every so often Remus would bury his face in Tonks's neck, pulling the blankets over his head. It tended to happen when a particularly loud clap of thunder was heard, leading Tonks to believe he might be a tiny bit afraid of it, but he looked so utterly adorable with just the top half of his face peeking out that she couldn't bear the thought of the storm ending.


	75. Chapter 75

Chapter 75

**(A/N: )  
**

April 2, 1996 2:39am

Remus awoke in the middle of the night because of a tremendously loud crash of thunder. The rain was still pouring on the window, and the fire in the library had long since died; nothing but barely glowing embers were left.

A flash of lightning illuminated the tall bookshelves looming over him ominously, and Remus, although he wasn't exactly scared (and if he was he certainly would not admit it, even to himself) decided to wake Tonks.

"Nymphadora," he whispered, feeling slightly guilty, although it was true that she had a day off tomorrow. "Dora..."

Tonks mumbled something in her sleep.

"Nymphadora. Tonks, then. Tonks!" Remus was speaking quite loudly by now. "TONKS!"

"Whaa...?" she muttered, opening her bleary eyes. "What time is it?"

Another loud crash of thunder made Remus shiver slightly. Tonks, who was gradually becoming more alert, noticed this, as well as the fact that the window was completely dark, the clouds covering even the nearly full moon.

"Are you cold?" she asked.

"A bit," he replied, anxious to leave the creepy old library at once. "We could go in my room, or your room, or something. It might be warmer there."

"Or I could just do a heating charm on the blanket," Tonks suggested, doing so to the blanket Remus had draped over them both before they'd fallen asleep.

"Tonks..." he muttered.

"Hm?"

"...Nothing. Goodnight—"

A loud crash that was distinctly not thunder came from the other side of the library.

"Tonks-please-I'm-afraid-of-the-dark-so-can-we-leave-now-please?" he whispered frantically.

"Relax, Remus," Tonks told him. "It was probably just some books falling off the shelf or Sirius messing around, or something like that. Besides, aren't you supposed to be a Gryffindor?"

Remus, although quite infuriated by the 'supposed to be a Gryffindor' remark, did not reply. He had detected something with his sensitive werewolf ears that Tonks could not. Footsteps.

They grew closer and closer, and when Tonks heard them too, they both drew their wands. Almost immediately after, someone else lit their wand, someone who was feet from them. The light illuminated the crazed face of—

"Bellatrix," whimpered Remus, cowering slightly.

"Don't be ridiculous, Remus, it's only my mum," Tonks told him.

"...oh."

"Mummy, what are you doing up here," Tonks asked in the voice that someone might use with a small child.

"...Nothing," Andromeda replied. She was clutching at something; quickly Remus snatched it out of her hands. She tried to grasp it back, but Tonks hit her with a stunning spell before Remus had fully realized what had happened.

"What is it?" she asked nervously, as her mum fell to the floor with a thump.

"A book..." Remus replied. "That crash must have been her getting it down off the shelf. Shall we open it...?"


	76. Chapter 76

Chapter 76

**(No new reviews on the last 3 chapters right now... makes me sad. *sniffle* Short chapter, sorry. REVEIW and next time it will be longer. )**

April 2, 1996 2:47am

"Shall we open it? No, Remus, let's just leave it here, ignoring something that could help us or possibly has to do with my aunt, or murder, or Voldemort, etc," Tonks said sarcastically. "Of course we're going to open it!"

"Touché." Remus muttered, surrendering the book over to her.

She opened it. The book let out a bloodcurdling scream. "What the bloody hell...?" she shouted, shutting the book immediately.

"It would help, maybe, if you looked at the cover," Remus told her. "'1,000 Torturing Methods for the Modern Witch.' Lovely bit of reading. It most likely belonged to Bellatrix."

The next time Tonks opened the book she had a silencing charm ready. "This book is property of Bellatrix Black. To be used on mudbloods, half-breeds, and bloodtraitors. Damn... Bellatrix sure did like to write in books," Tonks said, flipping through the pages.

"Write... in... books," Remus asked, looking horrified and angry at the same time. "Precious... books?"

"Remus, it's a book about torturing people. It should be burned," Tonks reminded him.

"Yes... of course," Remus said, although he was quite horrified at the thought of a book being burned."

"Well, this book basically has a bunch of scary looking muggle torturing methods mixed with wizarding torturing methods, plus the Cruciatus Curse. This is horrible... it says, 'to be used on the aurors, 1981.' That must have been the Longbottoms... Whoever wrote this book is sick. You'd think that _crucio_ would be enough to hurt someone, but this is full of blood and gore and mind games..."

"What I would like to know," Remus said quietly, "Is why your mum had it."

They both stared down at the stunned Andromeda, her eyes wide open but unseeing, a slightly crazed expression on her face.

"She's dangerous, Dora," Remus murmured. "She ought to be locked up."

Tonks made no reply.

Eventually they settled back down on the sofa, this time with the lamps lit and the fire started up again. It looked slightly less creepy than it did; cheerful even, if it weren't for the rain pouring and thunder crashing outside. And for the fact that Tonks was sitting there reading '1000 Torturing Methods for the Modern Witch'.

Figuring that in a house like this he wasn't very likely to get much sleep during the day, Remus allowed himself to drift off into an uneasy sleep filled with images of Andy's unconscious bodies waking and torturing Frank Longbottom and Tonks.

His worries must have been rather obvious to the pink haired witch sitting beside him, because soon he felt her small warm hands massaging his back, easing his pain and his fears, until he fell into a deeper sleep, filled with peace.


	77. Chapter 77

Chapter 77

**(A/N: MEEP! SO sorry; three concerts in three days is very stressful and time consuming, and I haven't had time to update! )**

April 2, 1996 9:34am

Remus woke up to find Tonks slumped over '1,000 Torturing Methods for the Modern Witch,' fast asleep. It was still raining outside, but a small amount of light had managed to penetrate the gray clouds and make its way into the room.

The fire in the fireplace was out again, and the room was close to freezing. Both the heating charm on the blanket covering the two of them and the silencing charm on the book were starting to wear out, although Tonks still didn't wake.

Remus took the book from her gingerly, looking at it in a way he'd never before looked at a book; full of hatred and disgust. Resisting the urge to hurl it across the room, he put another silencing charm on it and set it on the coffee table, then turned his attention to Tonks.

She was shivering rather badly in her sleep, fidgeting with the blanket, attempting to draw it more tightly around her. Remus lifted her up gently in his arms; her tiny body still huddled in the blanket.

He carried her to her room, where there was a mountain of junk on her bed, from chocolate syrup containers to paperwork. Sighing, he went upstairs to his room and set her down on the bed.

It was much warmer in here, but Tonks was still shivering, curled tightly into a ball. Now vaguely worried, Remus sat down and pulled her face closer to his. It seemed to be radiating heat, and his fears were confirmed. She was ill. Bloody brilliant. He wondered how much time she'd be allowed off from work; with ten death eaters and Sirius on the loose, she'd be lucky to get any.

She looked terrible in her sleep, her brow creased with anxiety and sorrow. Remus wondered what on earth she was thinking about to cause her to seem so appallingly distressed. She murmured his name so softly that he could barely hear it, even with his sensitive ears. She began to fight the blankets, tearing them off in her sleep, her arms outstretched, clearly searching for him.

Remus wondered if he ought to wake her; he had heard that waking someone who was sleep walking was not encouraged, but she wasn't really walking, just crawling around a bit. He eventually decided to, and did so without too much difficulty.

"Hm?" Dora said, opening her eyes a bit. She was swaying slightly on the bed and Remus seriously questioned whether she was so clumsy she'd be able to fall down while sitting.

"You're ill, sweetheart," he told her softly. "Fever and everything."

"Ill?" she mumbled, then a look of realization came over her face. "No! I have to go to work, I—"

"You don't have work today," he reminded her. "Tomorrow you can call in sick; no matter how bad the war gets, you'll still be allowed to do that I'm sure."

"But... Bellatrix—" she said in a scratchy, frantic voice.

"Bella is not solely your responsibility," Remus told her. "And for Merlin's sake, don't talk anymore, you sound like you're about to lose your voice. Lay down... now go to sleep."

He tucked her in, ignoring the fact that she looked rather grumpy at being told what to do, but she was apparently too tired to resist. He stayed beside her for a while, stroking the soft strands of hair that changed colours in her sleep; it went from pink to a dark, mysterious blue, to her natural brown.


	78. Chapter 78

Chapter 78

**(A/N: Sorry for the delay and the short chapter! I'll do my best to update again before Christmas, but I can't promise anything. Happy holidays!)**

April 2, 1996 12:28 pm

Tonks slept until past noon, but it was an uneasy sleep, haunted with nightmares of her mother and Bellatrix chasing her until they reached a dead end, filled with two dozen bodies of the lost Muggles.

She woke up screaming, Remus at her side. He hugged her, told her it'd be alright, and stroked damp strands of her hair away from her burning forehead. She wasn't really sure if it was real or not; everything was so hazy at the moment.

She fell asleep again soon after, leaving Remus sitting on the side of the bed, worrying. He'd told Sirius she was ill, and he promised he'd do anything he could to help. Unfortunately, Sirius was rubbish at brewing potions, and there wasn't anything in the cupboard. So really, all he did was sit there drinking and yelling at Kreacher and occasionally Andromeda.

Remus, not really knowing what to do, sent a patronus to Molly telling her that it wasn't an emergency, but to please come to Grimmauld Place because Tonks was ill. Molly, of course, arrived barely a minute later and began fussing over Tonks; first she woke her, and then bombarded her with questions about how she was feeling.

Tonks, whose brain wasn't really working quite yet, mumbled something about Bellatrix chasing her. Molly seemed to think Tonks was hallucinating instead of just having nightmares, and she sent a patronus to Madame Pomfrey before Remus could stop her, saying that Tonks had a rare and deadly disease. Remus, somewhat exasperated, sent another patronus saying that Tonks just had a cold or something and to ignore Molly's message.

Madame Pomfrey showed up a few minutes later clutching a potion that was emitting a rather unpleasant smell. She woke Tonks yet again, but Tonks, who was quite annoyed by now and just wanted to sleep, told her to leave using quite colourful language.

This set Molly off, causing her to launch into a rant about watching her mouth and using words that were lady like. Both Tonks and Madame Pomfrey ignored this, having had the same argument between them many times during Tonks's visits to the hospital wing.


End file.
